


Living With Sasuke

by CanineKitten



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Domestic, Family Issues, Light Angst, M/M, Mpreg, Romance, Roommates, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-07-23 09:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16156370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanineKitten/pseuds/CanineKitten
Summary: Naruto has been on the lookout for a place to live for a while but everything in his price range is usually in a bad condition. Then he stumbles over an offer so unusually good that he can't believe his own eyes. There has to be a catch, right? Turns out, there is... but not in the way he had expected.





	1. The Catch

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: MPREG. Note that the story is set in a future where male pregnancy is possible through medical intervention.
> 
> This fic is like a relic from my past and I really like it a lot. I've wanted to post a mpreg fic since I got my eyes up for the trope after reading "Naruto, You're Not Pregnant!" by Jelp. I wrote the first six chapters of this fic a few years ago, and then I finished the rest recently. I don't know if the change of writing style will be noticeable, but I have a feeling it might be. Anyway, I just wanted to share this. I hope you'll like it ^^

Naruto had been looking for a place to live for months now. Jiriaya said it was okay that he stayed with him but Naruto hated to feel like a burden. The only problem was that he was only employed part-time at Akimichi’s Grill& BBQ, so he couldn’t afford an apartment of his own. He’d have to find someone who was looking for a roommate. Not that he minded sharing, it was just that… Well, all the apartments in his price range were practically un-inhabitable. For weeks now, all the apartments he’d looked at had either been too pricey, or there had been at least one major flaw with it.

The latest one had no shower. When Naruto asked about it, the realtor just said he’d have to find a different solution to it. As though it was completely normal to rent out a place with no goddamn shower! Other than that, Naruto had practically seen it all. From major breaches of fire safety, to having to share a bedroom with five others. He’d been at several apartments that had no kitchen, and one ground floor apartment that had no glass in the bedroom-window. The worst one still was the one where you had to borrow the neighbor’s bathroom.

“I’m about to give up,” Naruto complained one afternoon while he was out eating together with Sakura. She’d just gotten off her shift at the hospital and had called to tell Naruto she was starving and would buy him a meal if he could accompany him immediately. Of course, he couldn’t say no to a good friend and her liberal wallet.

“About that,” Sakura said between mouthfuls of noodles. She really must have been starving because she was eating like a horse. “You’ll never believe the ad I saw in the newspaper during lunch today! I can’t believe I forgot to tell you about it!”

She started searching through her purse and pulled out a folded paper. She shoved it in Naruto’s face before she continued eating.

“Look at the one I encircled!”

Naruto read the ad. Then he read it again.

“This is too good to be true,” he murmured. He checked the date of the paper. “It’s todays paper… But it’s late. The apartment is probably taken already.”

“You should try anyway. It’s not too late.”

Naruto plotted the number from the ad into his phone. It rang three times before it went to voicemail.

“No one picked up.”

“God, what’s gotten into you? Send a goddamn text. If you don’t get an answer, then fine, at least you tried.”

Naruto opened a new text message, but he hesitated.

“I can’t shake the feeling that this is too good to be true. I mean… All the flats I’ve seen up until now have been barely twenty square meters. This one is fifty! And the rent? It’s less than any of the other flats I’ve seen. And the cheapest I’ve seen smelled like mold and had no windows.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t hesitate,” Sakura said and slammed her fist down on the table so hard the cutlery bounced. “Send a text right now, or I’ll do it for you.”

“Alright, alright…” Naruto turned away from her in case she was planning to take his phone from him.

‘Hi, I’m interested in a viewing,’ he wrote. ‘I’m male, 25, works as a waiter. Best regards, Naruto.’

When he’d sent it, Sakura somehow managed to steal his phone from him anyway.

“No wonder you get only the worst flats, your résumé sucks.”

“Stop being so mean,” Naruto muttered, and then he grappled with Sakura for a second trying to get his phone back.

“If you get that place, then I’ll take you out to celebrate. All on me, of course.”

“Yess. You better anyway. You’re loaded compared to me.”

“Shut up,” Sakura said, but she was grinning. “Want another round? Hey, you haven’t even eaten up! What is wrong with you?”

“I was busy replying to that ad!”

Sakura waved Teuchi over to them.

“Two more miso, please,” she said.

“Coming right up!”

“You are too kind, Sakura,” Naruto said, and gave her a big hug. To his amusement, she blushed. Then she flicked his head, which was not amusing.

 

\------

 

The apartment was situated in a very nice neighborhood with old apartment buildings. There was little traffic, but close to the city center. The building was at least ten stories high, and there was no elevator, but at least Naruto wasn’t going farther than the third floor. He knocked on the door to apartment 3C. It took a moment before the door opened to reveal a very handsome man with… a… um…

Naruto had to force himself to look up from the bulge on the man’s stomach and into his narrowed, dark eyes.

“I… Hi,” Naruto said, and thrust out his hand as though it was a weapon. The man looked surprised and a little suspicious, but he grabbed Naruto’s hand after a short moment of hesitation.

“I’m Naruto.”

“Sasuke.”

His voice was firm, just like his handshake. He looked nothing like Naruto had imagined a pregnant… Naruto shook off that thought. It wouldn’t help him to let his prejudices run off with him in a moment like this.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t… I hadn’t expected…” He was trying so goddamn hard not to look at Sasuke’s stomach. He didn’t want to be that person who couldn’t help himself but had to stare.

“Of course not. I didn’t tell you. Do you still want to see the apartment?”

“Yes, sure.”

Naruto followed Sasuke inside, and for a moment he got preoccupied gazing around him. The apartment had a giant hall, leading into a dining room that had a chandelier hanging from the roof. The ceiling was lofty and decorated with stucco.

“Whoa, this place is nice…!”

“Follow me,” Sasuke said.

He led them through the hall and the dining area, and to the left through a wide doorway into the kitchen. Naruto was getting more and more amazed. The kitchen was modern and high standard, and so big it could fit a whole class of aspiring chefs nicely.

“There’s been a lot of people on viewings,” Sasuke said while Naruto walked around and ogled every part of the kitchen like he’d never seen one before. “But… I’m picky and so are they, apparently. I’ve had five good candidates already, but they all declined.”

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke. “Why? What’s the big catch?”

Sasuke pointed at his stomach. “This.”

“What? They declined just because you’re p-pregnant?”

Damn, he stuttered…

Sasuke didn’t seem to notice.

“Remember, you’ll have to live with me,” Sasuke said.

Naruto shrugged. “I’ve lived with worse, believe me…”

He still wasn’t over that time when Jiriaya had brought home those twin prostitutes, or whatever they were, and they’d suggested he’d join them. He’d been twelve at the time. The memory still gave him shivers.

“And how bad can it be?” Naruto said. “Hey, uh… How long… I mean… If you’re… You know…”

‘How hard can it be to say it, Naruto?’ He chided himself. Really fucking hard, apparently.

Sasuke decided to put him out of his misery. “23 weeks.”

“Ah… Okay…” He had no idea how long that was. He tried to do the math as quick as possible, but Sasuke beat him to it.

“It’s almost six months.”

“Six months!!”

Sasuke startled.

“Sorry,” Naruto said. “But I mean… Six months? That means it’s just three months until… And what’ll I do then?”

“The ad did say ‘short-term’…”

“Damn… I didn’t notice that…”

“Does this mean you’re not interested…?”

“No, no… I’m still in. Three months it better than nothing.”

“Good.” Sasuke continued to show Naruto around the house. There was a glass-sliding door leading from the kitchen to a terrace that also served as a conservatory. It was full of herbs and potted tomato-plants. It smelled divine.

“So, you’re a waiter?” Sasuke asked.

“Yeah, but only temporary. I’m thinking of going back to school.”

They went back into the kitchen and continued to the right, into a new hall with two doors.

“But that wouldn’t be until spring, then?”

“No…” Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “I’m just thinking about it… It’s nothing urgent. At least I have my job for now.”

“That’s more than I have,” Sasuke said. He motioned to the door right in front of them. “This is my bedroom, and this,” he motioned to the other door, “is the nursery. Follow me through here.”

They went through a storage space and ended up in the main entryway. They went through a door in the hallway that Naruto hadn’t seen at first. It led to a bathroom. They walked through a second door that led into a bedroom.

“This is your bedroom,” Sasuke said.

The room was lofty and light, with a huge panorama window on the left wall.

“This room is huge!” Naruto exclaimed as he walked inside. He turned around and around like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He went to the window and looked outside. Then he noticed the sliding door that led out to the terrace.

“Whoa, I have my own terrace??”

Sasuke smiled. “No, it’s shared.”

“But anyway… This is too awesome…” Suddenly Naruto turned to Sasuke, who was leaning on the doorframe. “Hey… Do you mind if I ask… Why is this place so cheap?”

Sasuke shrugged. “I just figured it’d be easier to find someone willing to share with me, and… well, I haven’t told you everything.”

‘Uh-oh’, Naruto thought. ‘Here it comes.’ There had to be a downside when everything else was so perfect. Nothing was ever _perfect_.

“Let’s go to the living room to talk,” Sasuke said. He led them out through a new door and into a huge living room. To the left was the dining room, and to the right were some gigantic windows with a view to the terrace and the city outside.

They sat down on the couch.

“First of all,” Sasuke said, “I’d appreciate if you didn’t bring over any friends, at least not before you’ve talked to me about it. I know it’s a strange thing to ask, but I’m not comfortable with strangers, and I’d like to not worry about my appearance in my own home.”

Naruto nodded. That was understandable.

“And the second thing is about the food. I get nauseous easily, so there are certain things you can’t prepare in this apartment.”

“That’s fine,” Naruto said. “I eat out most of the time.”

“Okay. Just… Don’t order in or anything.”

“Okay.”

“Do you smoke?”

“Nope.”

Suddenly something small and black jumped into Naruto’s lap.

“Holy fuck!” Naruto exclaimed, and then he got a bit embarrassed when he realized that the small, black thing was a kitten, and it was looking up at him with big, innocent eyes.

“I hope you’re not allergic,” Sasuke said.

Naruto chuckled and petted the kitten. “No, I’m not.”

 

\-----

 

When Naruto left half an hour later, it was with a signed contract in his hand. He almost felt like he was walking on clouds. He’d gotten a place to live! And it wasn’t a dump!

He hurried to text Sakura.

‘I got the place! But it was so friggin weird, you have no idea!!’

Sakura answered almost immediately. ‘What happened?!’

‘Can you meet me at Ton Ton’s?’

‘I’ll be there in ten.’

Naruto took the tube to the old little restaurant that was situated right next to the hospital where Sakura worked. She wasn’t there when Naruto arrived so he ordered a coffee from Shizune and sat at his favorite place in the corner by the window. At this time of day, the place was nearly deserted. 

Sakura slid down on the seat opposite from him just five minutes later.

“Congratulations!” She said and pulled him into a bear hug. “How did it go? What was so weird?”

“You remember after the pregnancy revolution? How we always wondered how it would be to meet a guy who, you know, chose that?”

“Oh my god,” Sakura gasped. “He was pregnant?!”

An old man at the opposite side of the restaurant sent them a glare over the edge of his newspapers.

“Could you say it a little louder?” Naruto said.

“Oh my god, I’m so excited! When can I see him?”

“You can’t.”

“… Why not?”

“He specifically asked me not to bring friends over.”

“Oh, damn… But could you, like, take a picture?”

“No!”

“But I helped you find the apartment!”

“Sakura, no… Listen, maybe I can talk him into it one day, but not right now. And besides, you’ll probably see someone at your hospital soon enough.”

“Bah, it’s been four years and I’ve yet to see a pregnant man. One would think they would be more eager to take the burden off us women.”

“Yeah, right. I’m never gonna do it. It looks damn uncomfortable.”

“Not even when you find the man of your dreams?”

“I dunno. Maybe he’d do it?”

Sakura sighed. “I think you should do it. That way, I can almost become an aunt.”

Suddenly she lightened up. “Oh god, you have to do it Naruto! I want to become an aunt!”

“We’re not even related!”

“We’re practically siblings. I mean, you don’t have any siblings, I don’t have any siblings… This is as close as we’ve ever been to having siblings so we might as well say we are.”

“I’m not doing it for you!” Naruto said with a pout.

Sakura crossed her arms and leaned back. For a second Naruto was worried he’d offended her, but then she leant forward again.

“How far along was he?”

“Uh… Six months?”

“Oh god, that much? How big was he? Show me.”

“Whaat? No, not in public!”

“But I found the ad for you! You could at least do such a little thing for me.”

“You’re obsessed, you know that?”

“Yes. Now, come on. Here,” She shoved her scarf into Naruto’s hands.

“Okay. Fine.”

Naruto looked around to make sure no one was watching them. The old man had his head buried in the paper and Shizune had her back to them. Naruto hurried to push the scarf under his sweater. It barely created a little bump.

“No, it was bigger than that.”

He grabbed his own scarf, and pushed that under his sweater as well. Now it was starting to resemble something.

“Aw,” Sakura cooed. She leaned over the table and put her hands on his ‘stomach’. “What a cute little bump.”

Naruto pushed her away. Sakura was laughing so hard she was clutching her stomach.

“I thought that was you, brat,” someone said just as Naruto was about to pull out the scarves. He turned towards the tall, blonde woman standing next to their table, her green jacket a little askew and her makeup a little smudged.

“Granny Tsunade! How are you doing, old hag?” Naruto said. He hadn’t seen Tsunade since… Not since the last time Jiriaya was in town. That was starting to become a few months ago.

“Oh, I’m doing, at least. How about you?” She nodded towards Naruto’s lumpy stomach with a smirk. “Expecting a little one already?”

Naruto sputtered and threw the scarves at Sakura, who’d fallen into hysterics again.

“Very fucking funny.”

Tsunade sighed. “You two are still the same.”

“Hello, Tsunade,” Sakura said, still chuckling.

“How are you doing, Sakura? Still working at the Leaf Hospital?”

“Yeah, but now I’m studying to become a midwife as well.”

“Obsessed,” Naruto muttered.

She threw a chopstick at him and almost managed to poke his eye out.

“That’s good to hear, Sakura,” Tsunade said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have some very pressing matters to attend to.”

“Sure,” Naruto said under his breath. “It’d be rude to keep that sake waiting.”

Tsunade just gave him a glare over her shoulder as she disappeared into the backroom of the restaurant. Sakura and Naruto almost fell off their chairs laughing. The old man glared at them again, and coughed loudly.

Sakura pulled herself together, and winded her scarf around her neck.

“This has been fun, but I have to go and get some work done.”

“You didn’t even get to eat,” Naruto said.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a smile. “I’ll live on the knowledge that you’re safe and sound.” She pinched Naruto’s cheek. He just glared at her and pouted.

“See ya,” Sakura said over her shoulder before breezing out the door.


	2. Moving In

Naruto started moving in the day after he viewed the flat. Sasuke was home most of the time, so he could let Naruto in whenever he came over with a new batch of stuff. It wasn’t much stuff anyway. Most of the furniture in his old home was Jiraiya’s. All Naruto had, was a bed and his personal things. And there weren’t much of that either.

“I’d offer to help you,” Sasuke said when Naruto dragged in another heavy box with stuff, “But I wouldn’t be much help.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Naruto said between wheezing breaths. He really needed to hit the gym more often… “I’ve got this.”

When he’d managed to piece together the bed, and had unpacked his boxes (all four of them…), the room still looked empty. There had been a built in wardrobe in the room from before, and basically half of what he owned was inside there now. The rest was just lying on the floor. He had his TV and his PlayStation. Other than that, he had no idea where to put anything.

“You could need some more furniture,” Sasuke said.

“Yeah… A bookcase would have been nice…” He tried to remember if Jiriaya had some old furniture lying around. He wasn’t even sure what resided in the attic of that house anymore.

“Why don’t you buy one? They cost virtually nothing at IKEA.”

“I dunno… Furniture isn’t exactly what I’d like to spend my money on.”

“It’s an investment. Come on, I’ll buy you dinner afterwards.”

Naruto sighed, but whom was he fooling? He’d do basically anything at the mention of free food. “Okay then.”

 

\-----

 

Naruto figured Sasuke didn’t go out often. He couldn’t drink alcohol and he seemed to be home a lot. Naruto wasn’t sure if he even had a job. What Naruto hadn’t figured out yet, was how Sasuke could live in such a nice apartment when he seemed to do… nothing.

During the car ride, Naruto figured he might as well ask.

“I hope you don’t think it’s rude that I ask…” He said. “But where do you get the money to rent your flat? I mean, if you have to rent out a room… And I’m not even paying that much.”

“I don’t rent it,” Sasuke said. “I own it.”

Naruto was puzzled. “So… You bought it and then you… Didn’t have any money left?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “No. I bought it together with my ex. When we broke up, I took over the apartment because…” Sasuke hesitated. “Well, as compensation, I guess.” His tone was bitter.

“Oh…” Naruto said. Shit, touchy subject… “Okay. Then why do you need a roommate?”

“Because I need food, among other things, to survive.”

“So you don’t have a job?”

“No.”

Naruto wanted to bite his tongue. He’d known the guy for less than 24 hours, and he’d already managed to ask him the two of the worst questions he could have thought of. For future references; don’t bring up ex, don’t point out that he doesn’t have a job… Thankfully they’d reached their destination so Naruto hurried out of the car before he managed to insult Sasuke even more.

Naruto immediately noticed all the weird attention they got. Usually he didn’t notice stuff like that. (He didn’t have count of all the times Sakura had asked him if he’d ‘seen how that girl stared’, or ‘how that woman measured them’. He’d always just thought it was in her head). But this… This was overwhelming. Absolutely everyone they passed craned their neck around to catch a look. Naruto glared at a few, but it was like trying to swat away a swarm of mosquitos.

“Did no one teach them manners?” Naruto muttered as they proceeded into the shop. Thankfully, there were few people around this late in the day.

“Just ignore them,” Sasuke said. He sounded completely unaffected. He steered them in the direction of what Naruto supposed was the shelving section.

“But it’s rude,” Naruto said. 

“You stared too, yesterday.”

“Well, I didn’t crane my neck around like some goddamn parrot.”

“You didn’t need to. I was right in front of you.”

“At least I tried not to stare.” Naruto mulled over that for a second. “Did I stare?”

“Your eyes nearly popped out.”

They stopped in front of the bookshelves. Everywhere Naruto could see, there was only white surfaces and birch veneer.

“All of these are ugly,” he said.

Sasuke leveled him with a flat gaze.

“What?” Naruto said.

“You haven’t even looked at them,” Sasuke said.

“I have. I looked at them right now.”

Sasuke shook his head and started wandering along the sections of different bookshelves. 

“Then take another look,” he said.

Naruto muttered under his breath as he followed after Sasuke. He was the one buying the food, after all. Naruto would pretend to take a look, then he would confirm there was nothing of interest, and then they could go and ea…

…Naruto should have known he’d regret coming here.

“This one,” he said when Sasuke turned to see what had caused him to do such a sudden stop. Sasuke walked over to him. He looked at the bookshelf that Naruto was clutching with a definite dislike on his face.

“It’s… green.”

“It’s beautiful. I must have it.”

“It’s… lime-green.”

“So tasty, don’t you think?”

Sasuke sighed. “Whatever floats your boat, I guess.”

They noted the name and number on the furniture, and went ahead to collect it. On their way to the check out, they passed by all these cute little rooms and Naruto just had to look into each and every one of them. 

“Look at this!” He said. “It’s like a cute little cabin. And look at this bed. Woah… It’s so soft… Come and test it.”

“If lie down I’m afraid I wont manage to get up again,” Sasuke said drily.

Suddenly a kid strolled over to Sasuke and looked up at him. 

“Why are you so fat?” she asked.

Sasuke just looked down at her with a carefully blank expression on his face. Naruto rolled off the bed and went over to them.

“That’s not very nice to say,” he said.

The kid didn’t even look at him.

“My momma said that it’s disgraceful to look like that.” The little girl spelled disgraceful slowly but perfectly, as if to make a point of it. Sasuke looked like he didn’t know what to say. Actually, he looked like he wanted to slap the little girl across the face, but was doing an impressive job of restraining himself.

“Where are your parents?” Naruto asked the child.

Before she got the chance to reply, a woman strode over to them and grabbed the little girl by the shoulders.

“What have I told you about talking to strangers?” She chided, and then she pulled the child with her and away from them, all the while glaring at them as though it was their fault her daughter had harassed them.

“Hey!” Naruto said and stepped forward, but Sasuke grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t bother,” he said.

Naruto was still glaring at the retreating mother, but they were too far away for him to yell after them without making it a very public display.

“This has happened hundreds of times,” Sasuke said. “It doesn’t help to get angry.”

Naruto huffed. “I can’t believe she just walked away without apologizing!”

Sasuke shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But it does! She should teach her child some manners!”

“Kids don’t have manners.” Sasuke looked entirely serious as he said it.

“They can have, if their parents teach them some.”

Sasuke just shrugged and started walking towards the checkout.

“You have awful little faith in kids for someone who is about to have one,” Naruto said as he fell into stride with Sasuke.

“I have little faith in people in general.”

Naruto observed all the openly staring and sometimes even glaring people, and supposed he could understand why Sasuke felt like that.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke took them to a restaurant that didn’t smell like frying oil.

“The smell makes me nauseous.”

“Huh…” Naruto looked around at the small restaurant. It was a place he’d never been to before. It served traditional Japanese dishes like onigiri and sushi and ramen. The lighting was low and there was gentle music playing. They had to sit on pillows on the floor by low tables, in the traditional way. There were few people in the restaurant, probably because it was early evening on a weekday.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asked.

“Ramen,” Naruto answered immediately.

“Do you mind… picking something else?”

“Why?”

“The smell from the broth makes me nauseous.”

Naruto huffed. “What’ll you do if someone orders ramen and sits right next to us?”

Sasuke sent him a look that told him he was entirely unimpressed.

“Fine,” Naruto muttered. “Then I’ll have some tempura…”

Sasuke cleared his throat.

“Or _not_ something fried,” Naruto said. He sighed. “I guess I’ll have oden.”

When the waiter came over, Sasuke placed their orders in Japanese.

Naruto played with his chopsticks while they waited.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” He said, nodding towards Sasuke’s stomach.

“It’s a girl.”

“Huh…” Naruto mulled over that. Suddenly he was imagining a small baby wrapped in pink, and it was a strange contrast to the hard edges of Sasuke’s personality.

“Are you gonna raise her alone?”

“I have my family.” Sasuke looked away as he said it, his eyes narrowing slightly. His tone adapted a hard edge.

Naruto didn’t ask the obvious: what about the ex? He’d promised himself he wouldn’t ask about that again.

They lapsed into silence for a while, and soon after their food arrived. Naruto was too delighted about the food to worry about the fact that it wasn’t ramen.

Sasuke had ordered teriyaki duck and was eating it slowly and meticulously. Naruto was done eons before him. He tapped his fingers on the table while he waited.

“Are you gonna eat the rest of that?” he asked when Sasuke seemed to be done.

“No.”

“Can I have it?”

Sasuke pushed the plate over to him and Naruto wolfed it down in the matter of seconds.

“What?” Naruto said to the look Sasuke was giving him.

“I’ve just never seen food being consumed so fast before.”

“Then you better get used to it.”

Sasuke snorted. Naruto was surprised about hearing such an undignified sound from him. He seemed to always be so poised.

He grinned widely.

“Do you think I’m funny?”

Sasuke’s expression was blank again. “Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I’m not laughing _with_ you.”

Sasuke signaled to their waiter and paid for the food, ignoring Naruto’s pout. Naruto got up first and put on his coat. Then he realized that maybe he was supposed to help Sasuke get up. Or would he be offended at the insinuation that he couldn’t handle himself? Before he could think more about it, Naruto extended a hand to Sasuke.

Sasuke looked at it like it was gonna bite him, but then, to Naruto’s surprise, he accepted it. Naruto pulled him to his feet maybe a little too fast, because suddenly they were so close that he could feel the firm roundness of Sasuke’s belly against his own stomach. He grabbed Sasuke’s shoulders to steady him, and took a step away from him.

“Sorry,” Naruto said. “I only made matters worse.”

Sasuke shrugged off Naruto’s hands and bent to pick up his coat. Naruto hurried to do it for him.

“I am capable of doing things myself,” Sasuke said, but he accepted the coat from Naruto’s hand.

“I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know how to…” Naruto trailed off.

He didn’t know how to treat Sasuke because he was a _man_. That was the problem. Naruto was a nice guy, and he wanted to be helpful. But he also wanted to preserve Sasuke’s dignity. Apparently, this time he’d failed miserably.

They didn’t talk for the entire ride back home.

Naruto carried the flat box with his bookshelf alone, but Sasuke held the door open for him. When he walked past him, he once again felt his stomach brush against his side. He had to get better at calculating the distance between them…

When he started putting together the bookshelf, he was surprised that Sasuke came to help him. He sat down on the floor of Naruto’s bedroom and started sorting through the different parts.

“You don’t need to help me,” Naruto said.

“It’s fine. I have nothing better to do.”

“Don’t you have, like, friends to hang out with?” Naruto said while he tried to figure out what he should start putting together.

“Yes, all my pregnant friends with no job.”

“Huh… Alright, figures.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No… I guess you can be useful.”

He picked up two pieces of what he guessed were shelves, except one was longer than the other... There were little holes in both of them, but nothing to fasten them with.

“You can’t start with the shelves.”

Sasuke took the shelves from Naruto and pulled the biggest pieces out from the package.

“Theses are the frames. You should start with them.”

“I knew that,” Naruto said. “I was just… Looking at them.”

With their combined work, which consisted of Sasuke telling Naruto what to do, and Naruto doing all the hard work, they managed to piece together the bookshelf in under an hour.

“Look at that!” Naruto said proudly after having shoved the shelf up against the nearest wall. “It fits perfectly!”

Sasuke chose not to answer that. He got up from the floor and sat on Naruto’s bed. Naruto turned towards him. For some reason, it was sort of strange to see Sasuke sitting on _his_ bed.

“What is it? Did you short-circuit?” Sasuke asked. He was rubbing his stomach with one hand.

Naruto shook his head. “Nah, it was nothing.” He started picking up things from the floor and shoved them into the bookshelf. “It’s getting late,” he said. “I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

Sasuke stood and groaned as he stretched out.

“Thank you for dinner and everything,” Naruto said.

“Next time it’s on you,” Sasuke said and smirked.

When he left, Naruto took a moment to just sit down and think about everything that had happened. He actually liked Sasuke… He really did. And there was something about him… Even with that strange bump on his stomach he was very attractive and… sensual. Yeah, that was it. He was sensual, with the way he moved or simply stood. When he sat on Naruto’s bed… Naruto shook his head. He shouldn’t go there. Sasuke was his roommate, and one who was about to become a parent at that. Naruto probably shouldn’t get too involved with him.

With that decided, Naruto hurried to prepare for bed, and fell asleep almost the second his head hit the pillow.


	3. Ups and Downs

Naruto woke up to a blaring alarm and immediate confusion. Then he remembered that he’d moved to a new place, and relaxed under the soft comforter. It was so nice to for once wake up in a room that didn’t smell of old smoke and liqueur and dusty books. He was pretty sure that neither he, nor Jiriaya had ever cleaned up that place. Ever.

He rolled out of the jumble of sheets he’d entangled himself in, and stumbled to the bathroom. The clock was already 11.20, but he felt like he could have slept a lot longer. Sadly, he had a job he couldn’t be late for.

He met Sasuke in the kitchen. He was sitting by the kitchen island reading the paper, the little black kitten on his lap. Naruto went in search for the coffee and came up empty handed. Actually, there weren't even a coffeemaker in the house.

"You don't drink coffee?" Naruto asked.

"Not since this," Sasuke said, one hand cupping his stomach.

"Okay... So coffee is a no-go..."

Naruto wished he’d been told earlier. He was dependent of coffee in the morning. He wasn't exactly a morning person. Well, he'd just have to buy it on his way to work.

“Do you have the day off?” Sasuke asked.

“Nah, my shift doesn’t start until one o’clock.”

“Where do you work?”

“At Akimichi’s Grill and BBQ.”

Naruto had been nosing through the fridge, but when he heard a clatter from behind him he turned. Sasuke picked up the spoon he’d dropped.

“So you know Chouji?” he asked.

“Yeah, he’s my boss. Do you know him too?”

Sasuke shrugged. “I used to eat there before.”

“Cool! Do you think we met?”

“I think I would have remembered you,” Sasuke said.

“Aw, thank you,” Naruto said and winked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I would have remembered you because you’re loud and probably would have dropped my food at one point.”

“I’ll have you know that I’m a perfectly good waiter,” Naruto said. “If I’ve dropped something it’s only because I was unlucky.”

Sasuke smirked in a way that implied he knew he’d hit the nail on the head. Naruto turned away with a huff, annoyed that Sasuke had managed to guess his flaws so easily. It was true that he’d dropped more trays than he could count, but he’d gotten much better with time. He hadn’t worked there for long anyway, so what could you expect?

He stared with dismay at the depressing content of the fridge. There was a shitload of fruit and vegetables, and little else. Naruto sighed quietly. This was going to be tough.

 

\-----

 

A week went by where Naruto slept and worked for the most part. He barely saw Sasuke since he usually wasn’t there when Naruto ate breakfast around noon. Naruto wasn’t entirely sure where he spent his time, but he figured he was either taking a nap or a bath. He napped a lot, almost as much as his cat. Maybe he was half cat…

One day, Sasuke told Naruto that he’d gotten a temporary job at his fathers firm. Naruto was surprised to find that he worked long days, five days a week despite the fact that he didn’t seem to be dealing well with his pregnancy. He was tired a lot. When he came back from work he was sickly pale and usually went to bed immediately.

Despite Sasuke’s rules, Naruto had bought a couple of cup-ramen in secret and kept them in his room. As long as Sasuke wasn’t home, it couldn’t hurt if he ate them. Sasuke would never know. After grueling long shifts he felt like making something simple. He’d been working since early that morning, so he was off his shift at three. Sasuke usually wasn’t home until four.

Naruto boiled some water and waited impatiently for it to finish. He tapped his fingers on the countertop and looked around the kitchen. It was well stacked with kitchen applicants and looked expensive with its granite countertops and chrome surfaces. He wondered about Sasuke’s former life and who Sasuke’s ex was. He still hadn’t gotten confirmed if Sasuke was gay or not, though he was pretty sure that he was. Some men did choose to become pregnant if their wives for some reason couldn’t or wouldn’t, and perhaps some men actually wanted to do it for their own sake. Naruto didn’t know.

Naruto felt a little sad for Sasuke. It must be difficult being left alone in the situation he was in. He wondered what had happened.

The water boiler gave a sharp ‘ding’ and Naruto turned to grab it, but he stopped in his movement and took a step back when he came face to face with a narrow eyed, dark creature. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to its owner, the black cat suddenly appearing on the counter right in front of Naruto almost scared him shitless.

It had appeared as silent as a shadow, coming out of nowhere, it’s black eyes narrowed as though it knew Naruto was up to no good.

“Hey, kitty,” Naruto said in an attempt to appease the cat. It just stared him down without blinking.

Naruto reached out slowly to grab the water boiler, as though he was afraid any sudden movements would anger the cat. He flinched when it started licking its paw. He grumbled to himself while he made his cup ramen, keeping his distance to the cat. While he was waiting for his food to warm up, there was a jingle at the front door, and then keys clicked in the lock. Naruto only had time to think ‘uh oh…’ before he heard the door open. Seconds later Sasuke entered the apartment.

The cat jumped from the counter, strolling over to its owner. Naruto tried to hold his cup ramen out of sight as inconspicuously as possible. Sasuke petted the cat, which had jumped onto the dining table. He took off his jacket and draped it over the back of a chair.

“Hi,” Naruto said, smiling sheepishly. To his dismay Sasuke came towards him. At first he looked neutral. Not smiling but not really hostile either (at least Naruto hoped so…). But then his expression changed and Naruto knew he was in deep shit. He’d been heading for the refrigerator, but suddenly he turned towards Naruto and walked right up to him. Naruto tried to hide his hands behind his back, but Sasuke noticed. He grabbed the cup from Naruto’s hand and barely looked at it before he emptied it into the sink.

Naruto felt like slapping his forehead. He’d barely moved in and already he’d managed to piss off his roommate. Sasuke didn’t say a word. He just left the room.

‘Way to go, Naruto. Way to fucking go.’

 

\------

 

The rest of that day, Naruto kept his distance to Sasuke, though he left the door to his room open to signal that he wasn’t shutting himself off. After a while there was a gentle knock on the doorframe. Sasuke stood in the doorway, looking a little gentler than he had earlier.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” he said. His voice was a little subdued.

Naruto, who’d been crouching on the floor setting up his PlayStation, stood. “No, it was my fault. Sorry. I just thought…”

Sasuke frowned and Naruto immediately cut himself off. “I mean,” he said, “I was stupid. Sorry.”

Sasuke shifted his feet, leaning on the doorway. “I know that my rules can seem restricting. I wish it wasn’t so, but if you want to eat that type of food you’ll have to do it somewhere else.”

Naruto’s shoulders slumped. “I know, sorry…”

“I felt really bad for throwing out your food,” Sasuke said. “Can I make it up to you by making you something else?”

“You don’t need-“ Naruto started saying, but Sasuke’s frown once again shut him up.

“Come,” he said. “I’ll show you what you can make.”

As Naruto assisted Sasuke while he cooked, he couldn’t help but stare at his stomach. Sasuke was wearing a tightfitting black sweater, which just helped accentuating his protruding stomach. It wasn’t so big that Sasuke had trouble moving around, although he had some problems with bending. He always asked if Naruto could get something from the lower cupboards. While they cooked, Sasuke told him a little about his situation.

“I’m on hormone cures, so I might be a bit moody at times. That’s why I was so grouchy today.”

“Oh, I thought it was just part of your winning personality.”

Naruto felt like slapping himself the second he said it. He didn’t get the feeling Sasuke was a joking kind of guy. Surprisingly, Sasuke just huffed and continued cutting vegetables with maybe a little more force than necessary.

“Sorry… Tactless joke,” Naruto said with a sheepish smile.

“Save those for later,” Sasuke said.

The dinner consisted of a chicken salad with homemade dressing and bread on the side. Sasuke was surprisingly good at cooking. Naruto found he had to stop himself from wolfing it down despite the fact that he’d never been fond of vegetables, and especially not salads. The only problem was that when he was done, he was still a bit hungry, but he didn’t say that.

While they ate, Sasuke asked about Naruto’s past.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, blushing lightly. “Yeah, about that… Ehehe, I used to work in, er… publishing.” Sasuke didn’t need to know that he’d been the unauthorized editor of his godfather’s questionable erotic novels. “But then I, um, quit, so now I’m working as a waiter.”

“But how did you get hired there?” Sasuke asked. “It’s a five star restaurant. Did your literature education offer part-time waiter classes?”

Naruto flinched a bit at the word ‘education’. He’d been lucky he managed to get a diploma after high school. But Sasuke didn’t need to know that…

“I knew someone who knew someone. You know how it goes. I got proper training, though. I dare say I’m a kickass waiter.”

“Thank god you uncovered that latent talent,” Sasuke said, and although Naruto was a bit thick at times, he caught the underlying sarcasm in Sasuke’s tone. Also, the smirk was kind of an obvious giveaway.

Naruto frowned and huffed, but Sasuke just looked very smug.

“Payback for your tactless joke.”

 

\-----

 

Sasuke started working early in the morning, while Naruto often had late shifts, so they didn’t see each other much. Even on Saturdays Sasuke had to work a few hours, and Sundays were usually the days with most profit for Naruto, so they nearly never saw each other.

Some weekdays, though, Naruto had a day off, and when Sasuke came back from work he had dinner prepared for him. He could never make it as well as Sasuke did, but he could see that Sasuke was grateful never the less. He looked very tired when he came back, and he honestly worked very long shifts.

When Naruto asked what he’d used to work with, Sasuke looked a little annoyed. Naruto got the feeling that this was a sore spot for Sasuke.

“I’m a lawyer,” Sasuke said, “but after I got pregnant I had to quit my job at the firm. Clients didn’t want me to take on their cases and the firm was losing revenue. In the end I had to leave.”

“I’m sorry to hear that…” Naruto said.

“What about you?” Sasuke said, changing the topic. “Why did you quit your publishing job?”

Damn, why did that have to come up again so soon? He didn’t like to lie to Sasuke, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell this man, who seemed to have everything in order, that he’d barely managed to finish high school, never went to college, worked under dubious influence from his godfather, and finally got the job at Chouji’s restaurant because he couldn’t take the lousy pay and insane working hours any more.

“Um… I needed a change of scenery.”

Sasuke arched his brows. Naruto realized that might not be an entirely foolproof explanation.

“I mean… I was working under the worst boss… and I started figuring out that publishing wasn’t exactly my thing.”

He hurried to shuffle food into his mouth, so that Sasuke wouldn’t see how flustered he was.

“You mentioned taking more education,” Sasuke said. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well…” Truth was, he hadn’t thought much about it. He had focused on getting a job, and then an apartment. And then… he didn’t know. “I haven’t had the time to figure out what, and when. But I have over half a year to find out until I start applying.”

Sasuke snorted, and Naruto looked up at him, narrowing his eyes. That had been a very derisive snort.

“You don’t know what you want to do?” Sasuke said.

“No.”

“But you’re, what, 25?”

“I turn 26 in October.”

“So, you’re 26 in a month… You should have had enough time to figure out where you want to be. You’re aware that the more time you waste, the less chance you have of getting a decent job?”

Naruto abruptly stopped chewing.

“I don’t need you to come with your stupid opinions, thank you very much,” he said, glowering at Sasuke. “And I know for a fact that people can do fine without knowing where they’re going. My dad is proof of that.”

“What does he do?”

“He wanted to become a doctor, but flunked and ended up as prime minister instead.”

Sasuke’s eyes snapped up to Naruto’s. He could see that realization had hit him even before he took a second look at Naruto. He felt a bit bad about bringing up his father when he saw the honest sorrow in Sasuke’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Your father was Namikaze Minato?”

Naruto shrugged. “No need to be sorry. He died many years ago.”

Sasuke didn’t say anything more, and now Naruto definitely felt bad.

“I shouldn’t have brought him up.”

“No, I get it.” Sasuke rubbed his temple. “I take after my father more than I’m aware.”

Naruto had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but he didn’t ask more questions, and soon they started talking about lighter things.

 

\-----

 

A few weeks after he moved in, Naruto learned how vicious Sasuke’s temperament truly was. Naruto wasn’t the tidiest person, and he knew it very well, but in solidarity with the fact that he was in Sasuke’s home, and to spare him from having to do too much work in his state, he tried to be as tidy as possible. But sometimes he just forgot to pick up his clothes, or he left a plate or a glass on the living room table, or he dropped a pen, and goddammit, had he known that Sasuke was so uptight about tidiness he’d made more of an effort.

On a good day, he’d just ignore it, or pick it up without making a fuss, but on a bad day… Oh, it could get ugly.

Naruto had fallen asleep on the couch one evening, after having been out with his friends the night before. He hadn’t done the dishes because he’d figured he could do it later, and he hadn’t tidied up after himself on the living room table. He might also have left some clothes lying around, and they might also have been lying there for a time, but Sasuke hadn’t said anything, so he’d forgotten about it.

Naruto was woken abruptly from his slumber when someone shoved his feet down from the couch. He grunted and rubbed his eyes. He was a little disoriented after his deep sleep. Sasuke stood over him, looking vicious. His dark eyes had the ability to convey the deepest, darkest feelings when Sasuke felt so inclined.

“If I’d known you’d just lie around all day and drink away the night, I’d have married again instead.”

Naruto sat up. He was trying to figure out what could have prompted this reaction from Sasuke.

“You know I work late shifts and weekends,” he said. “I don’t have a regular schedule like you.”

“Then maybe you should use your free time doing something worthwhile, like figuring out what you should do with your life.”

Naruto was getting annoyed. “Who died and made you my mother?” he bit out.

“Don’t drag your parents into this again.”

“It was unintentionally this time,” Naruto grumbled. He stood and walked around the other side of the table, farthest away from Sasuke.

“All I ask is that you do the dishes after you’ve eaten, and don’t leave the place looking like a dump,” Sasuke said.

“Then maybe you should ask a little nicer.”

“I shouldn’t need to ask!”

Naruto glowered at Sasuke, who glowered back.

“You’ve been annoyed about this for a while, haven’t you?” Naruto asked. He recognized the symptoms from the few relationships he’d had. Why he always was attracted to the neat freaks was beyond him. His first boyfriend had been really tightlipped about things that annoyed him, and then suddenly he’d explode and everything came out at once. That was the reason they broke up. Naruto had been fed up of being yelled at. He wasn’t going to take it again.

Sasuke huffed and turned away, and suddenly the anger seemed to seep out of him.

“Just clean up, please. I’m tired of cleaning up after lazy people.”

“That’s the downside of being a neat freak,” Naruto murmured so silently Sasuke wouldn’t be able to hear it, though he glared at him anyway, probably hearing him mumble.

Naruto lifted his hands in a placating motion. “Don’t fret. I’ll clean up. You only needed to ask.”

Sasuke went to take a bath (and hopefully calm down), while Naruto cleaned up the entire apartment, vacuuming the floor and washing the dishes, tidying up all the clothes and other miscellanies that was strewn around (incidentally, it was all his), feeding the cat, and wiping down the tables. Then he started cooking, because he was pretty sure Sasuke had been just back from work.

When Sasuke came out of the bathroom an hour later, looking like a wet kitten that had just woken from its nap, Naruto’s annoyance softened a little.

“Hey, I thought we should make a list,” he said when Sasuke entered the kitchen.

Sasuke frowned. “What kind of list?”

“You know, a list of chores. I can tidy up if I know when it’s my turn.”

Sasuke absently ran his fingers over his stomach. Naruto wondered if he was aware that he often touched his stomach when he was lost in thought. It made him look a bit less uptight than usual.

“The problem isn’t that you don’t clean up. It’s that you make a mess in the first place,” Sasuke said, and Naruto forgot everything about not finding him uptight. He was that, and more.

He sighed.

“Okay, fine. But it would help if we had a list. That way I could make sure I do my share of the cleaning.”

“If you want to then by all means, make one.”

Sasuke grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and walked towards the bedrooms. 

“Aren’t you hungry?” Naruto yelled after him.

“No,” Sasuke said, and Naruto bit his teeth together in frustration. But then Sasuke stopped by the door, and said over his shoulder, a little gentler than before, “Thank you.”

Naruto liked him a little more again.

 

\-----

 

Naruto went out with his friends again the following Saturday. He’d gotten off early, and he really didn’t feel like going back to the apartment only to avoid Sasuke’s bad moods. Instead he felt like letting out his frustration with someone who’d listen.

“If I’d known he’d be bitching like that, I’d have gotten a boyfriend in stead.”

Naruto realized his words echoed Sasuke’s words to him the other day.

Sakura cooed at him. Mockingly, that was. “He seems like a guy that’d be able to put you in your place,” she said. “Not a small feat.”

Naruto grimaced at her. “I can behave!”

“Only when someone holds you by the ear,” Ino said. She was sitting next to him, and pulled is ear playfully.

“I think this man sounds wonderful!” Lee, sitting on Naruto’s other side, said directly into Naruto’s ear. Naruto was used to it so he just rubbed his ear absentmindedly to reduce the ringing. “Such power! Such strength! He’s truly marvelous to be able to tame such an unruly person as yourself!”

“Thank you, Lee,” Naruto groaned. “Is there anyone here that don’t think I deserved this?”

His eyes landed on Sai, and he instantly regretted it. Sai’s smile was pleasant, as always, and also a bad omen.

“Honestly, it shouldn’t surprise you that you constantly end up in these kinds of situations,” he said. “After all, you seem to be attracted to people who wish to do you harm, physically or mentally. Just look at Sakura…” There he stopped, a little belatedly realizing he was treading dangerous ground. There was a dark glow in Sakura’s eyes, a clear warning that one more word could leave him mangled.

Naruto suddenly realized that Sai might be right. Maybe he actively sought out people who wanted to harm him because he had some kind of masochistic tendency that he wasn’t even aware of? It was a truly terrifying thought.

“But, seriously,” Ino said. “He won’t allow you to have visitors?”

Naruto shook his head. “Nope.”

“He’s pregnant, though,” Sakura said. “Maybe he dreads having to relate to strangers?”

“He doesn’t sound like the type that dreads anything,” Ino said. “More like he’d scare the shit out of us.”

“It’s usually the most aggressive ones that are the most insecure,” Sai chimed in, probably reciting some lifestyle-book he’d been reading. He got another warning glare from Sakura, and shut up.

“The apartment is nice, though,” Naruto said. “And Sasuke can be tolerable. Some times.”

“Hm… Is he good looking?” Ino said, wriggling her eyebrows.

“Is he gay?” Sakura added.

“I’d guess he’d be,” Sai said. “He’s pregnant, after all.”

“But now that we’ve gotten that opportunity, many men offer their own bodies up for childbirth if their spouses are incapable of conceiving!” Lee said and somehow managed to sound enthusiastic the entire time.

“I’ve got a feeling that he might be gay,” Naruto said.

“I’d say he’s gay,” Ino said. “But I need to see a picture of him to know for sure.”

“How can a picture tell you if he’s gay or not?”

“I have a special sense in that regard.”

Sakura snorted. “You didn’t guess Naruto.”

Ino crossed her arms and glared at Sakura. “Just give me a picture, I’ll prove it.”

“I don’t have a picture of him,” Naruto said. “That’d be creepy.”

“What about his Facebook?” Ino asked.

Naruto grumbled about it, but he searched for Sasuke’s name on his phone. He didn’t remember his last name, but thankfully his first name was unusual. Of course, on his profile picture he had to be wearing a suit, and he had to look fucking gorgeous. It was the first time Naruto saw Sasuke without the bump on his stomach, and man… it really made a difference.

Ino leant over Naruto’s shoulder. “Oh God.” She snatched the phone from Naruto’s hand.

“Please say he’s not gay.”

“Let me see!” Sakura leaned over the table and took the phone from Ino.

“Careful with that,” Naruto said when Sakura nearly dropped it in a mug of beer. “I can’t exactly afford a new one right now.”

Sakura just gaped. “He’s _gorgeous_. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t think it was relevant!”

“Not _relevant_?” Ino said. “As if.”

“Never mind his awful personality,” Sakura said. “I’ll take him anytime.”

“Weren’t you guys entirely sure he was gay just a second ago?” Sai asked. He looked a little annoyed, which was an unusual expression to see on his usually so mask-like face.

“I don’t care if he’s gay,” Ino said. “I’ll convert him.”

“Let me see too!” Lee said and got the phone from Sakura. “Oh, he really is good looking! That is splendid! But he looks gay.”

“Who made you the expert,” Ino huffed. She turned on Naruto. “You have to arrange for us to meet him!”

“You could convince him to go out with us!” Sakura said.

“I think that’s a bad idea. If he’s pregnant, I mean. He can’t drink,” Sai said. No one listened to him.

“I’m not gonna set you up with him,” Naruto said. “I have enough trouble with him if I don’t have to see him when I’m out with you guys too.”

The girls pouted. “What about taking us to your place?”

“Yeah, he’ll probably love that. If you don’t care enough for me to give a fuck whether I’m killed in my sleep, then sure, let’s do it.”

There was a sour silence for a while, where Ino and Sakura refused to speak, Sai looked grouchy, and Lee tried to snatch Naruto’s beer while he was occupied glowering. Then they slowly eased into their usual tone and the conversation flowed again. No one mentioned Sasuke again, but Naruto couldn’t help but feel that, without even being present, he was infiltrating every aspect of his life.


	4. The Invitation

Naruto woke up with a massive hangover. Thankfully, he was in his bed. Sasuke couldn’t complain about him being hangover in his own bed, now, could he? Naruto rolled over and checked the clock. It was long past midday. He wondered what Sasuke was doing. What did he usually do on Sundays? Naruto had no idea because he usually worked.

He got up and made breakfast. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. His cat, Vortex (fitting name, Naruto had thought the first time he heard it. He supposed Sasuke had an ounce of humor after all), kept Naruto company as he ate, but only so he could remind Naruto to refill his food bowl, because he could see the bottom. It wasn’t empty, but he could see the bottom, ergo; it was empty. Naruto figured that the cat was about as easy to understand as the owner.

Sasuke came home around midday, his skin paler than normal and his eyes vacant. He had a band-aid on his arm. Naruto felt bold enough to ask how he was doing.

“I’m fine, I just had my monthly check up,” Sasuke said. “Blood sample, hormone balance, ultrasound…”

“Is it healthy with all that hormone stuff? I mean, for the baby…”

“It’s only once per month, or less. And I’m taking it _for_ the baby, not for me.”

Naruto suddenly noticed that Sasuke was less tense and moody than he’d been the last few days. Instead he simply seemed tired. Maybe it had something to do with his hormones…

“Should I make you something?” He asked. “Tea? Or are you hungry?”

Sasuke picked up Vortex, who’d been rubbing against his legs, and carried him to the couch where he sat down with him on his lap. Naruto pursed his lips. Vortex would never have let _him_ do that.

“Tea would be nice. Thank you.”

Naruto made them both some tea, and sat down in the chair next to the couch.

“Um… You look pale, are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?”

Sasuke shook his head. “I’m fine.”

He sipped his tea slowly while he kept petting a contently purring Vortex.

“How does it feel? You know… being pregnant.”

Sasuke looked at him and snorted weakly. “It feels like I’m carrying a small rock with a tendency to do acrobatics.”

Naruto leaned forward, his eyes wide. “You can feel her moving?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but a small smile was tugging at his lips. “Yes.”

“Cool…” Naruto wanted to ask if he could touch, but he had a feeling it was a bit too soon. It was the first time in days that they were talking civilly with each other.

Sasuke placed his cup on the table and rubbed his temples.

“I think I need to go and lie down,” Sasuke said. He stood and the cat jumped away with an indignant screech.

Naruto watched the way Sasuke swaggered gently as he walked away, and wondered how someone cold look so hot even with a protruding belly and sickly pale skin.

Or maybe his preference had just gone haywire.

 

\-----

 

Naruto went to his bedroom and took a nap, and when he woke up a few hours later he found a stranger standing in the dining room. The man was tall and had dark hair but pale skin, just like Sasuke. He turned when he heard Naruto enter, and flashed him a mild smile. His eyes were dark and piercing, and Naruto got a feeling he was being assessed although he never felt the man was threatening in any way. The man reached out a hand and Naruto shook it.

“I’m Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke’s brother,” he said. “You must be Sasuke’s roommate.”

“Yeah, I’m Uzumaki Naruto.”

Naruto figured they were brothers. He’d never met anyone else that effortlessly made him feel as inferior as these brothers did. But Itachi somehow felt more stable than Sasuke did, and he wasn’t as guarded.

“I hope my brother haven’t been giving you too hard a time. He’s not entirely housebroken even on good days.”

Naruto scratched his cheek. What was he supposed to say to that? Itachi must have interpreted his hesitancy accurately and figured that Naruto didn’t want to admit anything. He chuckled.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll manage to tame him.”

Naruto gaped. “Um…” Was he kidding?

Before he could formulate an answer, Sasuke came out from his bedroom.

“Itachi,” he said, his voice as inflectionless as always. “”What do you want?”

“I just wanted to drop by to see how my favorite brother was doing.”

Sasuke glowered. “I’m your _only_ brother,” he bit out.

“Ah, so it is.” Itachi smiled at Naruto, who felt a bit panicky at being wedged in between these brothers. He didn’t want to take sides.

“Don’t pester my roommate,” Sasuke said from the kitchen. He had his back to them so Naruto had no idea how he could have known that anything had passed between them.

Itachi shook his head with a small chuckle.

“Joking aside,” he said, and walked over to Sasuke. “I have good news.”

Naruto, who was starving, fixed himself an easy meal consisting of cereal and milk. He couldn’t help but hear what the brothers were saying.

“Akemi is pregnant.”

Naruto watched them from the corner of his eyes. He saw Sasuke turn to his brother.

“Congratulations,” he said, and he sounded like he really meant it.

Itachi leaned forward and, to Naruto’s surprise, kissed his brothers forehead.

“How are you feeling?” Itachi said after a moment. He petted Sasuke’s cheek. Sasuke turned away with an annoyed huff and began shelving through the fridge.

“Same as usual. How is Akemi?”

“She’s happy. Practically glowing. I just wanted to drop by as soon as possible to tell you.”

“How far along is she?”

“A month and a half.”

Sasuke turned to Itachi again, crossing his arms. “Itachi, don’t-“

“I know, I know. But I just had to tell someone.”

“Just don’t get your hopes up.”

“But what can happen, really?”

“In the first twelve weeks there’s a higher chance for miscarriage. You know that.”

“But then again, you’ve always been the pessimist.”

“I’m just careful. I don’t want you guys to be let down again. Have you told anyone else?”

There was a moment of silence.

“You told mother, didn’t you.” Sasuke said.

Itachi didn’t answer, but apparently his silence was answer enough.

“You shouldn’t have.”

“She got so happy, you should have seen her…”

“I can imagine.”

There was a short, tense silence again, before Itachi spoke.

“She wants to have a small family gathering next weekend. Do you think you can be there?”

There was long moment of hesitation. Naruto could feel the tension build up even from where he was standing.

“Sure,” Sasuke said at last. “I’ll be there.”

“Thank you,” Itachi said, so softly it nearly wasn’t audible for Naruto.

For some reason, the whole interaction between the brothers touched him deeply.

 

\-----

 

When Itachi left, Sasuke stood for a moment without moving. His head was bowed and his hands were prone on the counter. Then he suddenly turned and went to his room, leaving the food he’d been preparing on the cutting board. When he didn’t come back after a long while, Naruto went ahead and made dinner from what Sasuke had left. He waited for another long while, hoping Sasuke would come back soon. When he didn’t, Naruto went to the closed door of his room and knocked lightly.

“Sasuke?” He called.

No answer.

“I just… I made dinner. I thought you’d be hungry…” he trailed off.

There wasn’t a sound from the other side of the door.

“I’ll just… wait in the kitchen,” Naruto said, and went to the kitchen again. He picked at his food while he waited for Sasuke. After about five minutes, Sasuke came out of his room. His hair was slightly tousled and his clothes were rumpled. It looked like he’d been taking a nap. Naruto pretended he didn’t see the slight puffiness around Sasuke’s eyes.

Sasuke sat down and looked at the food Naruto had prepared.

“Thank you,” he said with a slightly scratchy voice.

Naruto had no idea why he suddenly felt so elated, like he’d conquered the world. He just bowed his head and smiled as he dug in, his eyes following the movement of Sasuke’s slender hands as he ate, and for a moment everything felt right.

 

\-----

 

Naruto was starting to get accustomed to having strangers pop up in their apartment like weed in a rose bed. Not many days after he met Itachi, Naruto got up at twelve in the morning only to find a woman in the kitchen. At first he just stood in the dining room, rubbing his mussed hair and wondering if he could make it back to the bathroom before she turned and saw him in all his bed headed, bleary eyed glory.

Sadly, she turned almost immediately. She was beautiful, that was the first thing Naruto noticed. Her hair was pitch black and straight, her skin was pale and her face was ageless and smooth. Despite this, Naruto could see that she was much older than him. That was why he managed to guess that this must be Sasuke’s mother.  
She smiled, a dazzling smile that radiated everything a mother should be. Caring, kind and gentle.

“Hello, I’m Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke’s mother. You must be Uzumaki Naruto? Itachi told me about you.” Mikoto strode over to him and offered her hand in a handshake. She wasn’t very tall, but somehow she managed to exude a confidence that made her seem much taller.

“Nice to meet you,” Naruto said.

“Itachi told me you seemed nice.” She smiled. “It’s good to know someone can take a little care of Sasuke.”

“I don’t think he needs to be taken care of,” Naruto said with a crooked smile. “He seems to manage fine.”

Mikoto’s smile turned a little sad. “That’s what he wants you to think,” she said, and turned back to the kitchen. She had been sorting through a few shopping bags she’d brought, and was restocking the fridge and cupboards.

“But he’s going though a hard time now. I know it’s not really your responsibility, but I’d be forever grateful if you could keep an eye on him. Just… be there for him. I’m not saying you should be his confidant or anything,” she looked up at him. “Just… It’d make me so much calmer if I knew he wasn’t entirely alone.”

Naruto looked at her pretty face and saw the worry lingering in her dark eyes. For a second he thought that they looked like Sasuke’s; dark and deep, with an underlying vulnerability that could be hard to detect. He saw it now, though, and he realized that Mikoto was honestly worried about her son.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Mikoto’s grateful smile was worth all the trouble Naruto had been through the short time he’d lived with Sasuke.

“Thank you,” she said. Naruto went over to her and helped her put away the food.

“I’m just afraid that he wont take care of himself, you know, in his situation and…” Mikoto sighed. “The break-up was so bad, and he has a tendency to shut himself off. He refuses help from anyone…” She shook her head. “Sorry, I’m talking too much. You probably don’t want to hear about my troubles. Would you like a sandwich?”

Naruto gratefully accepted Mikoto’s offer of food. He’d never had a mother figure make food for him, and it was with childish delight that he ate the delicious sandwich she made.

Before she left she asked him if he wanted to come over for dinner next weekend. Naruto knew that, incidentally, that’d be the same time Itachi talked about, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to get mixed up in the family affairs of someone he barely knew, but he didn’t have the heart to decline Mikoto’s offer.

“Thank you, I’d love to come,” he said with a forced smile.

Mikoto’s entire face lit up. “Oh, that’s lovely.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed Naruto’s cheek. Naruto had never blushed so much over a kiss from a woman before.

“Uh, it’s nothing,” he mumbled and forgot for a moment what kind of disaster he was setting himself up for.

 

\-----

 

Naruto wasn’t working that day and when Sasuke came back he was sitting on the couch, watching TV, Vortex on his lap (he grudgingly accepted Naruto when Sasuke wasn’t around).

“Hi,” he said without looking away from the TV screen. Sasuke greeted him with little enthusiasm. He went into the kitchen, opened the fridge, looked inside, and closed it again. Then he went over to Naruto.

“Have my mother been here?”

“Yes.“

Sasuke sighed. 

“Did you talk to her?”

“Yes…” Suddenly, Naruto got the feeling that he shouldn’t have talked to her. “Um, she made me a sandwich…”

The look Sasuke gave him made him want to cover. It also made him a bit annoyed. Mikoto had come into _their_ apartment. It wasn’t his fault that she’d talked to him.

“Maybe you shouldn’t give out your apartment keys to everyone if it annoys you that they visit,” he said.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed. He went back to the kitchen without a word, and Naruto had a sinking feeling that he was about to receive the silent treatment. But after fixing some food, Sasuke came and sat in the chair next to the sofa. Vortex rose from Naruto’s lap and jumped over to Sasuke.

“Traitor,” Naruto mumbled. Sasuke gave him a puzzled glance. “Your cat doesn’t seem to like me.”

Sasuke chuckled. “And that worries you?”

Naruto shrugged. “I guess I’m afraid he reflects his owner.”

“Ah… So you _are_ capable of subtleties.”       

Naruto glared at him. “I’m not _stupid_.”

“Contrary to common belief.”

Naruto just glowered because he had no idea how to respond to that, and he knew that if he tried and failed he would have proved Sasuke’s point.

“Good choice,” Sasuke said, and Naruto got the unsettling feeling that Sasuke had read his mind.

They sat in silence for a while, just watching the TV. Naruto’s mind was elsewhere, though.

“By the way,” he said. “Your mother invited me to dinner this weekend.”

Sasuke glanced at him. “And you said?”

“Um… I said yes.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed again and Naruto hurried to add, “But I could just tell her something came up, I guess.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

“No, she seems to like you,” he said. “She’d be disappointed if you don’t show up.”

“Okay,” Naruto fidgeted a bit.

“You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into,” Sasuke said.

“Huh? Your mother seemed nice enough…”

“My mother, yes. My father, not so much.”

“Ah, well… I guess I can survive one dinner.”

“… You know, you don’t need to do this.”

Naruto shrugged. “I know.”


	5. The Dinner

It was Saturday, the clock was four and it was one hour until they were supposed to be at Sasuke’s parents house. Naruto watched as Sasuke walked back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen to the bedroom, and mused over the fact that Sasuke’s stomach seemed to have grown since he first saw him. It was even more protruding and difficult to ignore now than before. Naruto found it was the only thing he could watch as Sasuke moved around. He tried to measure it and figured it was about as big as a small watermelon.

Suddenly Sasuke stopped right in front of him.

“Are you listening?!”

“Huh, what? I’m sorry, I was lost in thought…”

“I’ve been talking to you for five minutes!”

“Sorry!”

“Get up,” Sasuke said brusquely. “You need to wear something nicer.”

“Nicer?!” Naruto was wearing the nicest clothes he had!

“Do you have a tie?”

“… No…” He needed a tie? Holy shit… He stood and let Sasuke examine him. The dark eyes trailed over his body with sharp critique. Naruto felt like squirming. He was wearing a blue shirt and a dark pair of jeans, and in his opinion he looked just fine.

“You can borrow one of my ties,” Sasuke said.

“What about you?” Naruto said, looking at Sasuke with a critical eye. He was wearing a simple black jumper that hugged his over-dimensioned stomach tightly, and black skinny jeans.

Sasuke snorted. “I’d look ridiculous with a tie.”

Naruto grumbled but he had to agree. It would look strange with a jumper and a tie and that bump. Naruto could understand why Sasuke had left his former job… He’d never have been taken seriously in a suit.

“Go and find a tie. I’ll start the car.”

Naruto went to Sasuke’s room and turned on the light. He’d half expected everything to be immaculate and in exact order, but the bed wasn’t even made and there were clothes strewn around the bed and floor. It was far from as bad as Naruto’s bedroom, though.

Naruto went to the closet that occupied the entire wall opposite of the bed. He opened the doors and inside he found a neat row of suits. He leafed through them and touched the expensive fabrics. These were very nice suits. He could tell even before he’d seen the labels, and when he did he very carefully withdrew his hands. Not that he had any personal experience with Armani, Brioni and Boss, but if he got as much as the smallest speck on them, he knew it’d be extremely expensive for him.

As he kept looking for the ties he wondered how Sasuke could afford these suits when he couldn’t afford to live alone in a two-bedroom apartment.

Naruto found the ties neatly rolled up in a drawer, all of them in the most boring colors you could imagine. Naruto searched through them, and far at the back he found a tie that wasn’t grey, blue or black. It was green, but it’d have to do. He grabbed it and hurried outside to where Sasuke was waiting it the car.

“Sorry it took so long,” Naruto said. “You have a gigantic closet.”

Sasuke just grumbled and started driving. Naruto started putting the tie on, but Sasuke frowned. “You can’t wear green with blue.”

Naruto groaned and hit the back of his head against the headrest. “Do you want to go back then, or what?”

Sasuke frowned even more as he glanced at the tie. “I don’t have a green tie. Where did you find that…?” Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and then his expression changed to a mask of cold fury. He grabbed the tie and threw it into the back of the car.

“You’ll have to forgo the tie.”

Naruto sighed. So much commotion for nothing.

 

\-----

 

On the way to Sasuke’s parents, Sasuke told Naruto a bit about his family.

“My father is a business mogul. He likes intelligent conversations about money and rich people,” there was a smidgen of bitterness again, “and he’s not easy to please. So don’t try.”

Naruto huffed. “I’m not a pleaser so that’s fine.”

“You’ve already met my mother,” Sasuke continued. “She doesn’t work despite the fact that she has a degree in psychology, but she writes books and gives the income to charity. She’s also passionate about cooking and as you already know it’s nearly impossible not to like her, or to feel any kind of accomplishment when you’re next to her, although my brothers fiancée tries really hard.”

“You don’t seem to like your family,” Naruto pointed out.

“But I’m very passionate about them.”

Was that a joke? Naruto thought he could detect a small, crocked smile that seemed to vaporize in the blink of an eye.

“That brings us to my brother,” Sasuke continued. “He works in fathers business and is engaged to Oshiro Akemi. Don’t try to outwit him, he’s too smart for you.”

“Hey!” Naruto said. “Are you saying I’m stupid?!”

“Don’t get offended, he’s smarter than everyone. So lay low and play nice because my family devours people like you.”

Now Naruto was getting increasingly offended. “People like me?”

“People without an education. People who have low income jobs because they don’t know where they’re going.”

“Are you still on about that?!”

“I’m just saying. I think it’s best if you say as little as possible and when someone asks you about things, don’t elaborate.”

“So I’m gonna sit in a corner and nod like a pretty doll?”

Sasuke smirked and shot Naruto a glance from the corner of his eye. “If only you were pretty,” he said.

Naruto had had enough of taking this kind of treatment, so he crossed his arms and looked out the window, stubbornly refusing to look at Sasuke. Instead he watched the scenery and became increasingly amazed.

“Whoa, this neighborhood is neat,” he said, forgetting entirely that he was mad at Sasuke.

The lawns they drove past were the size of parks, and there wasn’t one single house that weren’t enclosed by eight feet tall fences. The driveways were so long you could barely see the houses in the other end. Naruto craned his head to get a better glimpse of the properties as they passed by the wrought steel gates.

Up ahead, the biggest, most extravagant property was looming in the distance.

“Shit, the folks that live there must have an insane amount of money,” Naruto said and pointed forward.

Sasuke just snorted and Naruto glared at him, thinking he was making fun of him. Well, fine. He could shut up. He started to get the clue, though, when they took off down a side road and started driving towards the giant property with the mansion that rested like a castle on top of the hill.

“You don’t live there, do you?”

Sasuke didn’t answer but he didn’t need to, because when they approached the gates, they slid up for them without hesitation.

“God,” Naruto muttered as they drove up the hill towards the giant mansion at the top. The driveway was flanked by perfectly pruned cherry trees, all of them the same size and all of them in bloom. Yet, there wasn’t one single petal or leaf on the ground. The many yards wide park area was immaculately mowed. Not one single strand of grass seemed to be in disarray, though in order to be entirely certain about that, Naruto would have to get out of the car and find his magnifying glass. He snickered under his breath at that thought.

Sasuke glanced at him. “What’s so funny?” He said.

“Nothing. It’s just that everything is so ridiculously immaculate. I’m pretty sure that the peacock over there was ordered to stand exactly on that spot.”

“Do we have a peacock?” Sasuke looked in the direction Naruto was pointing, and true enough, by a fountain and a neat row of bushes, one white and one blue peacock pranced about.

“Mom must have gotten bored again,” Sasuke said with a sigh.

They finally reached the front yard and parked right in front of the wide granite stairs. Naruto couldn’t help but stare as he got out of the car. The house towered over him with its white limestone walls and tall, ornamented windows. It seemed to be an old house, but it had some modern touches. It was truly astonishing, and pretty fucking huge.

“Holy shit,” Naruto said. “Why did you never tell me about this? I thought you were as poor as me.”

Sasuke shrugged. “Things have changed. I used to be a spoiled brat, but I’ve distanced myself from all this lately.”

He got quiet and looked up ahead at the giant wooden doors that were polished so they were shining. They opened as they stood there, and a man dressed in a neat black suit and a bowtie stepped out.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Naruto whispered.

If that was a butler, then he could just give up and go home. He did not belong here at all.

Mikoto walked out after the butler, her red lips parting in a bright smile. Sasuke walked up to her and received a kiss on each cheek. “Sasuke, sweetie, it’s been so long,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good, mother.”

Naruto walked up to them and got a kiss on each cheek as well.

“I’m so glad you could come,” Mikoto said to him. “It’s lovely to see that Sasuke has found someone!”

“Um, I’m just his roommate… Nothing more…” Naruto said. He got the feeling Mikoto thought there was something more between them.

“I don’t even know which way he swings,” Sasuke added. Mikoto just shook her head and went on ahead of them.

“I won’t interfere with your love life,” she said.

Sasuke rolled his eyes behind her back. “When don’t you interfere, mother?”

When she went into the kitchen, Sasuke slowed down and walked next to Naruto.

“Which way do you swing?”

“Oh, every which way.” Sasuke’s eyebrows arched. Naruto grinned. “Kidding. I’m gay.”

“Really?”

“No one ever believes me, but yes.”

All Sasuke said to that was ‘hm’.

“And you?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. “I thought it’d be obvious.”

“I’m sorry, but my gaydar is a bit off.”

Sasuke snorted. “I’m gay.”

For some reason, Naruto felt really pleased. He imagined the faces of Ino and Sakura when he told them and grinned smugly. They walked down a hall and walked through a doorway into a spacious lounge. Sasuke’s brother came over to greet them.

He kissed Sasuke’s forehead in greeting. Then he shook Naruto’s hand and told him how nice it was to see him again. He turned to a dark-haired woman who had come over too. She was much taller than Mikoto, almost as tall as Sasuke, but looked much like Mikoto in the way she dressed and held herself. She was elegantly attired in a shift dress that fell flatteringly around her skinny body. Despite her gauntness, she was very beautiful and her gaze was firm and met his without blinking.

“I’m Akemi, Itachi’s fiancé,” she said.

“I’m Naruto. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She smiled and leant forward, kissing both his cheeks the same way Mikoto had done.

“And you too,” she said. “Itachi seems so taken with you, I almost feared competition.” She winked, and Naruto blushed and chuckled.

“I’m simply happy my brother have such lively company,” Itachi said. He was looking at Sasuke the entire time. Sasuke seemed to fight the urge to roll his eyes at Itachi. They made their way over to a couple of white settees by an oval coffee table in dark walnut. A tall, broad-shouldered man rose from a chair by the table. He had dark hair without a single gray strand in it, and a face that held little sign of aging despite the fact that he must be close to sixty. He held himself with an air that was slightly intimidating. Naruto could sense that both Itachi and Sasuke became a bit tenser in proximity to this man who had to be their father.

“Uchiha Fugaku,” the man said, shaking Naruto’s hand in a firm grip.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” Naruto said, and didn’t avoid eye contact for even a second. He had a feeling that showing weakness to a man like this could be fatal.

“Please, take a seat,” Fugaku said and gestured for Naruto to sit down. He sat down on one of the settees with Sasuke, while Itachi and Akemi sat down opposite them. Fugaku sat back down in his chair and lit a cigarette.

“Father,” Itachi said. “You shouldn’t smoke when Sasuke’s here.”

Fugaku just harrumphed and ignored his son. Itachi tensed slightly but Akemi squeezed his arm and he let it go.

“How is business, father?” Sasuke said. He leant forward and poured himself a glass of water from the jug on the table.

“We don’t talk about business in better company, Sasuke.”

Sasuke and Itachi exchanged brief glances. Even when he was just seeing Sasuke’s profile, Naruto could see the tension in the lines of his face. Itachi’s expression was neutral, but Naruto could sense something being exchanged between the brothers.

“I think I’ll go and see if Mikoto needs help,” Akemi said and left the room.

Sasuke sat back and thus left Naruto open for questioning.

“What is it you do, Naruto?” Fugaku asked. He was leaning back in his chair, cigarette resting lazily between his fingers.

“I work at a restaurant,” Naruto said.

“Oh, really? So you run it?”

“No… I wait the tables.”

Fugaku was silent for a second, “Hm…” He took a drag from his cigarette. “And how old are you?”

Naruto hesitated a moment before answering. This was starting to feel like an interrogation. “I’m 25.”

Fugaku nodded. “Well, I suppose we all have different values in life.” Naruto tensed but didn’t reply. Frankly, he was too shocked to find words.

Fugaku turned to his youngest son. “How is work, Sasuke?” he asked.

“It’s wonderful, father. Makes me appreciate my college degree.”

Fugaku snorted. “You only have yourself to blame.”

Eyes blazing with anger and jaw tight, Sasuke lifted the glass of water to his lips and took a sip. He refused to answer.

Thankfully, Mikoto appeared in the door a second later, saving them all from the oppressing silence.

“Lets move to the dining room, gentlemen,” she said.

Naruto sprung to his feet and followed Mikoto, eager to get away from the sniping remarks.

They got seated in a spacious dining room around a huge table. A magnificent chandelier hung from the roof right above the table, ten times bigger than the one in Sasuke’s apartment.

Sasuke pointedly placed the glass of wine a little away from his plate.

“I’m sorry,” Mikoto mouthed at him.

The dinner commenced in silence… an almost oppressing silence. Naruto became acutely aware of how every sound was magnified in the huge, silent room. He tried to eat as quietly as possible but he couldn’t help it when his fork made scraping noises against the plate. Itachi tried to keep a conversation going with his father, but he seemed in a bad mood.

“What is it your father do?” Fugaku asked Naruto.

“At the moment, not much,” Naruto said.

Sasuke sent him a glower in warning.

“He’s dead,” Naruto added.

“My condolences,” Fugaku said, and somehow managed to sound entirely ignorant. “And your mother?”

“Dead as well.” Naruto had no problem talking about it. It happened a long time ago.

“I’m so sorry,” Mikoto said. “Is it long ago?”

“I was five so I barely remember them.”

The conversation went on to more general things, and thankfully the interrogation stopped, at least for a little while. But then Mikoto turned to him again and asked with a charming smile, “So, are you dating anyone?”

“Mother!” Sasuke hissed.

Mikoto just batted her eyelashes at him. “A woman’s got to ask,” she said.

“Not currently,” Naruto said.

“There’s no girls, or boys, you’ve got your eyes on?”

“Mother,” Sasuke said again, with more warning.

Now Fugaku has suddenly become interested too. Naruto felt a little uncomfortable but he was hell-bent on not showing it.

“No one in particular,” he said with an easy laugh. “I’ll keep you updated.”

“Please do,” Mikoto said, and then she winked and looked at Sasuke.

She so totally thought they had something going on!

“We just want to know that you’re reliable. People like that can be irrational and conniving,” Fugaku said.

Sasuke coughed. “ _I_ am _like that_ , father.”

“Don’t take everything so personal, Sasuke. You know very well what I meant.”

Sasuke clenched his glass of water so hard that Naruto feared he’d break it.

A housekeeper cleared their plates away and Mikoto told them to get seated in the lounge where they’d be served coffee. Naruto hung back with Sasuke and made sure no one was listening before he whispered to him, “She thinks we’re dating!”

“She’s just upset my marriage was such a failure. She’s been trying to hook me up with virtually every man that crosses her path.”

“But she doesn’t even know if I’m gay!”

“Oh, she knows.”

Naruto glared. “No way. Even _you_ had to ask!”

“My mother has some sort of sixth sense when it comes to that. She can guess even the trickiest ones.”

The housekeeper served coffee and sherry and the conversations started flowing more easily. Sasuke placed himself farthest possible from the can of coffee and pointedly shoved his unused cup away from himself. No one but Naruto seemed to notice.

Fugaku leant back in his chair and said little, but Naruto could practically feel his eyes on him. He felt a little nervous, his palms were sweaty, and as a result he probably drank a little too much. Soon his head felt nicely fuzzy and he cared a little less about the company he was in.

“Let’s not forget the time when Sasuke was seventeen and came home wasted at two in the morning and proceeded to tell Alfons, our butler, how handsome he was and – ouch!” Itachi said.

Naruto had zoned out for a bit. “What?”

Sasuke glared at Itachi, who just smiled back, seeming entirely unfazed by a glare that would have made Naruto really uncomfortable.

“Let’s not continue for the sake of peace,” Akemi said and laughed. Her voice sounded like the sweet tinkling of silver bells. Naruto wondered briefly how the rich always came across the prettiest ladies. Did they order them on some sort of lab that produced perfect human beings for the delight of the highest bidder?

Mikoto looked a bit strained at the talk about Sasuke’s debauchery. She turned to Naruto. “So, what is it you do?”

“He works at a restaurant,” Fugaku said.

“Ah… Well… that’s nice!”

Mikoto didn’t seem entirely sure what to do with the information.

“Which restaurant?”

“Akimichi’s Grill and Barbeque.”

“Do you like the job?”

Naruto shrugged. “It pays the bills.”

“I’ve been to that restaurant,” Akemi said. “They have excellent food and the staff is always so nice.”

Naruto gave her a grateful smile.

Fugaku put out his cigarette and rose from his chair.

“Come with me,” he said. Itachi stood. Naruto did too, since the man had looked straight at him. Sasuke followed suit.

“Not you,” Fugaku said without even looking at Sasuke.

Sasuke froze and Naruto hesitated.

“Just go,” Sasuke said. He leant closer. “But don’t act too cocky. He’s testing you.”

Naruto sighed inwardly. This didn’t bode well.

 

\-----

 

It was close to midnight before they finally were sitting in Sasuke’s car again, on their way home. Naruto groaned and rubbed his temples. Fugaku hadn’t interrogated him more, but he’d proceeded to talk about things that Naruto knew little to nothing about, and watched Naruto like a hawk the entire time.

Itachi had saved him out of a few embarrassing situations, but the experience had taken its toll on him.

“Why did I agree to this again?”

“Because you were stupid enough to accept mothers dinner invitation.”

“It’s not like I had a choice! Your family just walks in and out of that apartment like they own it!”

“Mother insisted she get a copy of my key when I moved in alone, and then she gave one to Itachi and my uncle too. But now that you’re living there too I have a good excuse to get the keys back, so thank you.”

“No, thank _you_. Goddammit.”

They drove for a while in silence and Naruto tried to take a nap. He was about to doze of when Sasuke suddenly wrenched the car onto the shoulder of the road and stumbled out. Naruto, still dazed from his nap, stumbled out too and looked around to see if Sasuke was okay. He found him in the ditch by the road, puking his guts out.

“Are you okay?” Naruto said. He hovered around Sasuke but kept a distance of a few feet. He wasn’t sure it was advisable to interfere.

“I’m fine,” Sasuke said and dried his mouth with his sleeve. “It’s just a combination of stress and the food.”

Naruto helped Sasuke stand.

“I want to offer to drive, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m still seeing double.”

Sasuke snorted. “I’m fine now.”

He pulled his hand out of Naruto’s. Naruto hadn’t even been aware he was still holding onto him. 


	6. The Birthday Cake

Sasuke had said he wanted to withdraw the keys he’d lent out, but on Monday Naruto once again woke up to find a stranger in their living room.

“And who are you?” he said grumpily.

The man lounging on his couch (or, Sasuke’s couch, but whatever) peeked up over the edge of the book he was reading, incidentally one of Jiraiya’s books, his shock of white hair dangling in his eyes. His eyes closed and smile wrinkles appeared around them. Somehow, Naruto was not appeased.

“Hello, I haven’t met you before.”

The man stood, and Naruto was surprised to find how tall he was. He strolled over to Naruto, pocketing his book on the way. 

“Are you a new boy toy?”

“No!” And then he thought about it. “What do you mean, _new_ boy toy?”

The man smiled, but his eyes were sharp like blades when he looked at Naruto. “Oh, you know Sasuke. The boys are always trailing after him. So… Who exactly are you?”

“I asked first,” Naruto said, crossing his arms.

“Fine, fine. I’m Hatake Kakashi, a… relative of Sasuke.”

God, how many relatives are there? Naruto thought. But then a vague memory came back to him. “Wait… Are you his uncle?”

“No, that would be my lovely partner.” Kakashi smiled again, his eyes closing entirely.

Naruto just viewed him with suspicion. “Then, what are you doing here?”

“Hold on now, my question first; who are you?”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, Sasuke’s roommate.”

“I see. And here I thought he’d become into blondes.”

For some reason, Naruto blushed. He had no reason to blush, but he did and that annoyed him.

“I’m not really in the mood to talk today, so it’d be nice if you could just tell me what you want and leave.”

“Well, aren’t you feisty.”

Naruto glared as hard as he could, but judging by how unaffected Kakashi was, he could imagine he just looked like an irate pup. Damn those big, blue eyes of his.

“Fine,” Kakashi raised his hands in a placating way. “I’m just here to bother Sasuke a bit.”

Then he grinned. “I hope that’s not a problem for you.”  
Naruto narrowed his eyes. “My problem is that Sasuke won’t be home for f _our hours_ , and now you’re bothering me!”

Kakashi shrugged. “Such is the burdens of being the roommate. Hey, do you have any food around here?”

Naruto was nearly sputtering as he turned on his heel and slammed the bathroom door after him. He took a long shower to cool himself off a bit. He hoped that by the time he came back out the man would be gone. Sadly, he had no such luck.

When he came back out, Kakashi had kicked his legs up on the table, and was reading his book again. An empty plate stood next to him.

“Your fridge needs restocking,” he said without looking up.

Naruto grumbled all the way over to the kitchen.

 

\------

 

  
Sasuke had barely made it inside the door once he was back from work before Naruto couldn’t hold back his rant anymore.

“I’m so fed up of all your relatives strolling in here like it’s a fucking mall.”

“Oh, you met Kakashi?”

“Yes!”

“He has that effect on people.”

Sasuke took off his jacket and bent down, with a little trouble, to take off his shoes. Then he sank down onto the couch with a deep sigh.

Naruto noticed that Sasuke’s hand went to his stomach and rubbed one spot absentmindedly. He’d started to realize that when Sasuke did that, it was probably because the baby was kicking. He wanted so badly to touch, but couldn’t make himself ask.

He went to the kitchen and got Sasuke a bottle of water. 

“You’re not working today?” Sasuke asked.

“No. I’ve got a lot of free days this week, actually.”

“It’s good with some free time. You work a lot.”

“Gotta earn my living, though.”

Naruto slid down on the couch next to Sasuke. His gaze rested briefly on the TV-screen where some soap rerun was showing, before he glanced at Sasuke. Sasuke looked tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was unusually pale. He was wondering if all the work he did together with the hormones he was taking, really was good for him.

“You work a lot too,” Naruto said. “You look a bit tired.”

Sasuke shrugged. “I need the money.”

Naruto thought about Sasuke’s rich parents and couldn’t help but wonder why they weren’t helping him out. He asked.

“I refuse to take their money,” Sasuke said.

“But… Maybe it would be better, I mean… if you took the money, then you wouldn’t have to work so much, and the baby…”

Sasuke sighed. “It’s not that easy. My dad stopped financing me after... well, after a lot of things went down. He said he wouldn't help me out as long as I disrespected his wishes. He probably would listen to my mother and offer me some money if I really needed it, but I don’t want his money, or his pity. I didn’t want to work for him either, but technically I work for Itachi, so…”

After Naruto meeting with Sasuke’s father and seeing how he treated his son, he could easily understand why Sasuke was reluctant to take the money.

“Just take care of yourself,” Naruto said softly.

Sasuke looked a bit surprised over the soft words. His face relaxed minutely into something tender and soft. Naruto felt his heart do a funny little flutter in his chest. He rubbed the back of his head and averted his eyes.

“So, um… Do you want dinner? I even bought you vegetables today.”

 

\-----

 

Sakura couldn’t stop laughing during Naruto’s retelling of the dinner party.

“His family really seems like a handful.”

“Ugh, I know. And I’m going to a new family gathering in three weeks. A garden party. Sasuke’s brother and his fiancé are celebrating their pregnancy.”

“Why do you keep saying yes to these things?”

“You think I didn’t try to say no? Sasuke’s family doesn’t take no for an answer. Itachi even somehow convinced me to move my shift at the restaurant so that I could come.”

Sakura grimaced. “Whoa.”

Naruto sighed. “It’ll just be this one time.”

“It wont come true just because you keep telling yourself that.”

Tsunade came over to them. She was carrying a small package.

“Happy birthday, brat,” she said and brusquely placed the package on the table.

“Um… My birthday is in over a week.”

“Whatever. Close enough. I probably won’t see you then, so…” It looked like she was blushing slightly, but it could just be from the heavy drinking. “Just take the damn present.”

Naruto grinned. “Thank you, granny.”

Tsunade just hit him lightly at the back of his head, which was equal to a hug from her, and went back to the back room.

Naruto turned towards Sakura.

“Oh, and there’s one more thing. Sasuke’s gay.”

Sakura looked crestfallen. “How do you know?”

“He told me. I’ll leave you the pleasure of telling Ino.”

He got his jacket and placed some money on the table.

“I’ve gotta run. My shift starts in ten minutes.”

“Okay. And Naruto? Remember Saturday next week at Akimichi’s!”

“How can I forget?”

 

\-----

 

His birthday arrived, and with it a whole lot of nothing to do. He had an early shift at the restaurant and went home early at Chouji’s insistence.

“Go home, have some fun. I can’t allow you to work away your whole birthday.”

Naruto didn’t tell him that he had no one to share his day with. He had no boyfriend, and Sakura had to work until late. Even Sasuke would have been good company, but he wasn’t home.

Naruto bought himself a slice of cake at the convenience store and propped a birthday candle on top. Then he sighed. He should have been used to it by now. He’d often celebrated his birthday alone. Jiriaya could be away for months at a time, and he wasn’t very good with remembering birthdays. He hadn’t always had as many friends as he had now, either. He just wished that now that he finally had a lot of friends, he wouldn’t be alone on his birthday. But it was a Wednesday and they had their own lives to worry about.

Naruto blew out the light and thought miserably that this was the worst birthday he’d ever had. Then the keys jingled in the lock, and the apartment door opened. He heard Sasuke take off his shoes and then he showed up in the dining room, a shopping bag in one hand.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi.”

Sasuke placed his keys on the dining table and lugged the groceries to the kitchen. Naruto sprang up. 

“Let me help you with that.”

He took the bag from Sasuke and for once he didn’t protest. He went to the living room. Naruto completely forgot about the sad little cake until Sasuke said,

“Is it your birthday?”

“Oh…” He placed the last few groceries in the fridge and closed the door. “Yeah, it is.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry, I just thought…” Naruto wasn’t sure what he’d thought. He hadn’t expected Sasuke to care, to be honest. “It slipped my mind.”

“That’s the most pathetic birthday cake I’ve ever seen,” Sasuke said. He looked around the dark, quiet apartment. Not even the TV was on. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“I’m meeting my friends on Saturday, but I’ve got no plans for today.”

“Your friends didn’t have time today?”

Naruto shrugged. “Sakura works until late and the others have work and family and girlfriends and… you know… a life.”

Sasuke picked up his jacket and put it back on. Then he got his keys from the dining table.

“Put on a jacket. We’re going out.”

Naruto followed him into the hallway. “But you can’t drink.”

“I said nothing about drinking.”

They didn’t call a cab, but walked down the street. Naruto tried to make Sasuke tell him where they were going, but Sasuke just smiled mysteriously. Finally, he stopped outside a pastry shop.

“You need a proper birthday cake.”

“You don’t need to…”

“Consider it my present to you.”

Naruto felt warmed by Sasuke’s consideration. He’d never considered them friends, but… Maybe they weren’t so far off from being friends after all. “Thanks.”

Sasuke didn’t allow Naruto to see how the cake looked until they were back home.

“It’s a surprise.”

Since Naruto had said that he liked all cakes when Sasuke asked what he wanted the most, he had no idea what it’d be. He was secretly hoping for a proper birthday cake, layered and with lots of cream, but he’d be happy about anything.

Sasuke placed the parcel gingerly on the kitchen island. Naruto reached out for it, but Sasuke stopped him.

“Dinner first.”

Naruto pouted, but complied.

They made dinner together and it turned out to be a surprisingly nice evening. They talked with ease during the whole meal. Sasuke even opened a bottle of wine that he had lying around. Naruto protested, saying he shouldn’t open it just for him, but Sasuke insisted.

“So you’re the wine type?” Naruto asked.

“Not really. It’s something that my ex left.” There was a moment of tense silence. “I considered trashing it, but it’s a shame to throw out such good wine.”

“Did it… Was it a bad break-up?”

Sasuke shrugged. “It wasn’t as much a break-up as it was him just leaving and then coming back to get his stuff. And then leaving again.”

“Ouch. I’m sorry. He must have been a jerk.”

“Well… I honestly wasn’t at my best either, back then. I’d just started the hormone cures and they were not agreeing with me.”

“But that doesn’t give him the right to just leave.”

Sasuke looked longingly at Naruto’s glass of wine.

“Let’s not talk about that right now. We have a birthday cake to open.”

He slid the cake over to Naruto, who opened the ribbons and let the cardboard box fall open. The cake wasn’t big, but it was more than enough for the two of them. It had a layer of orange marzipan covering it, and on top it was decorated with swirled narutomaki’s and noodles and halved eggs in marzipan.

Naruto stared at Sasuke in astonishment. Sasuke was grinning.

“I know it’s stupid, but I had to buy it.”

Naruto laughed. “Damn, that’s… Wow, I didn’t even know this kind of thing existed! Thanks!”

Cake and ramen in one and the same portion; it couldn’t get better than that.

The cake was filled with peach and vanilla cream. It was perfect. Just the kind of cake fitting for a birthday. They continued talking long into the night until Naruto reluctantly said he needed to go to bed. Sasuke needed to sleep too. The both of them had to go to work the next morning.

Naruto had almost forgotten about the present from Tsunade until he got back to his room and saw it sitting on the nightstand. He tore off the wrapping and opened the box. He smiled.

Out of all the people he knew, Tsunade was the one person who’d always remembered his birthdays. She didn’t always give him presents, but when she did they were often things that Naruto grew to value, like the green frog-purse that he always took with him everywhere when he was a kid. Tsunade had some sort of relationship to Jiriaya, though Naruto wasn’t sure of which kind, and he had a feeling she viewed Naruto like her nephew.

Inside was an old photo of his parents, framed in a worn, golden frame. A note was attached to it. ‘Jiriaya found this in his attic, told me to give it to you. Happy birthday.’

Naruto wondered where Jiriaya was now. He hadn’t talked to him since he moved. He was probably busy traveling around.

Naruto placed the picture on his bedside table. It showed his parents in their early twenties, hugging each other and smiling at the camera. He kept the light on and stared at the photo until he fell asleep.

\-----

Saturday arrived and Naruto had the evening off. He spent it lounging on the couch until he finally had to get into the shower and get ready for the party. He hadn’t seen Sasuke since he got off from work, but he supposed he was in his room. His shoes were by the door.

At Akimichi’s there were a lot of people in addition to the group that made up his closest friends. It was a Saturday evening after all, and almost the entire town seemed to be out dining.

Sai, Ino, Lee and his wife, and Sakura was there, as well as Neji, Tenten, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. Sai sent best wishes from his girlfriend who was away on a business travel.

The night flew by in a delightful haze of chatter, alcohol, good food, and of course, cake. When the huge, layered strawberry cream cake was placed on the table, Naruto was reminded of the much smaller, ramen-cake that he had shared with Sasuke. He wondered what Sasuke was doing now…

The others sang him birthday songs so loudly that eventually the entire restaurant joined.

“Where did you even get the cake?” Naruto asked as Chouji served him the first slice.

“My mother made it.”

“Thank her from me. It looks delicious.”

And it was.

The whole group then proceeded to the nearest nightclub, where Ino, Sakura and Lee tried to convince the others to come and dance. Naruto tried to refuse, but when he was dragged out on the dance floor by three pairs of insisting hands he had to give in. He knew he looked ridiculous; he couldn’t dance, but honestly, he didn’t care. He was having fun, and soon his entire group of friends was out there on the dance floor with him.

When he finally got some reprieve, he sunk down on a bar stool and ordered a beer. Ino showed up next to him and loped an arm around his neck. She leant in close so that he could hear her over the music.

“Sakura told me.”

For a long moment, Naruto was utterly confused about what she was talking about.

“It figured, I guess,” Ino continued. “With the pregnancy and all. But still… What a shame.”

She swayed a bit. It was starting to dawn on Naruto what she was talking about.

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Good for you, though,” Ino said and wriggled her brows. “Now you’ve got a chance with him.”

Naruto shook his head. “No… He’s just been through a bad break-up, and he’s expecting a baby, so…”

“Hm… Is the baby putting you off? I guess, becoming a dad… because you would kinda become a dad, you know, but at 26… It’s a little early. You haven’t even started your career.”

Naruto’s brain shut down for a moment while Ino continued her drunken blabber. A dad… He would actually become a dad if there ever turned out to be something between him and Sasuke. Could there be something between them? … Did he want that?

He liked Sasuke a lot, he really did…

“You have to introduce us to him.”

“Huh?”

“Sasuke. You have to introduce us to him.”

Lee and Sai had joined them too.

“That would be splendid!” Lee said, but Sai didn’t look very pleased.

“I can’t,” Naruto said. “Not yet, anyway.”

He wondered if he ever would. What happened at the end of the pregnancy, when a little baby was to share the apartment? Sasuke might still need the money Naruto provided, maybe more than ever, but on the other side, it would perhaps be strange to live together with a new born… Naruto would probably be woken up every night to the baby’s cries. And most probably, Sasuke wouldn’t want him there anymore…

“Hellooo.” Ino waved her hand in front of Naruto’s face.

“He’s completely gone,” Sakura laughed.

“I think he’s had enough.”

Naruto protested when his friends led him out of the nightclub, but when they let go of him, everything swam and he ended up face down on the pavement.

“Are you okay?” Sakura asked between bouts of laughter.

She and Sai steadied him again.

“’M fine,” Naruto muttered.

“We’ll get you home,” Sakura said. “Just tell us the address.”

“I can’t,” Naruto said. “Sasuke…”

“Sasuke will understand.”

She hailed a cab and Naruto gave the driver the address.

“It’s okay,” he said when Sai and Sakura got into the car. “I can get home on my own.”

“You can barely walk,” Sakura said.

Ino pouted at them from outside the car. “You’re just going with him because you want to see _him_.”

“Of course not,” Sakura said. “I’m helping a friend in need.”

She slammed the door shut.

Naruto fell asleep on her shoulder somewhere along the ride. He woke up what felt like a second later when Sakura shook him. 

“We’re here.”

She and Sai helped him out of the car. Naruto stumbled a bit.

“I can walk,” he insisted. He staggered over to the nearest streetlight and clung to it.

Sai and Sakura stood and watched him with matching expressions of amusement.

“I just need a moment,” Naruto said.

He steadied himself and let go of the streetlight. He’d only taken two steps before he dove headlong into the bushes lining the walkway.

“I can see that,” Sakura said drily.

They fetched him out of the bush and, when Naruto failed to find the keys to the apartment complex main door, pressed the buzzer next to the note that said ‘Uchiha’.

It took a while before Sasuke answered.

“Yes?” He sounded vary.

“Hi!” Sakura said. “We’re Naruto’s friends. Naruto’s a bit wasted, so if you could let us up…?”

After a moment’s hesitation, the door buzzed and let them in. Sakura and Sai hoisted Naruto up to the third floor, which was a great feat considering Naruto was barely helping them. Sasuke held the door to the apartment open, and Sakura thanked him with a bright smile.

“I’m impressed,” Naruto said as she shouldered open the door to his room and steadied him towards the bed. “You didn’t even try to fondle his bump.”

Sakura blushed. She shoved him down so that he almost bounced off the bed when he landed.

“Aren’t you a bit too drunk to make fun of other people?” She said as she tugged off his shoes and placed them on the floor.

“Thanks,” Naruto said.

He was so tired and he was already drifting off when he felt Sakura grab his hand.

“Good night,” she whispered.


	7. So Close, yet so Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized now that I posted chapter 6 practically ON Naruto's birthday... without planning it or realizing the significance of the date. I mean... how is that even possible xD 
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter ^^

“Your friends are disturbingly nosy,” Sasuke said the next morning when Naruto staggered into the kitchen at noon with his hair standing in every which direction, squinting at the bright daylight.

“Shit,” Naruto muttered. “I’m sorry. They’re just curious about you.”

“Obviously,” Sasuke said. “That pink haired girl looked like she was itching to touch my stomach, and that other friend of yours is really strange… I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.”

Uh, oh…

“What did he say?”

Sasuke hesitated. “Well… He was weirdly candid about your, um… your body.”

Naruto groaned. “Don’t listen to Sai. He’s normally a bit weird, but when he’s drunk he’s even weirder. For some reason, he loves talking about my dick. Don’t ask me why. And no, he’s never seen it outside of the locker rooms in high school.”

Sasuke shuffled the glass of water that stood on the table before him. “Not that I needed to know that, but okay.”

He threw a glance at the clock. “Will you be ready for the garden party? It’s in two hours.”

Naruto wanted to slap his forehead, but controlled the urge. He knew there had been something he’d forgotten today.

“Yeah, I’ll be ready,” he said. “I just need some…”

He trailed off. His go-to the morning after was coffee. Lots of coffee. But he’d forgotten that Sasuke had nothing of the sort in the house.

“What do you need?”

“Uh… Normally, coffee is the miracle cure for my hangovers.”

“Oh…” Sasuke got up from his chair and, cradling his stomach, he reached for his jacket. “I’ll go out and buy you some.”

“You don’t need to,” Naruto protested. “It’s fine, I can buy some coffee when we leave.”

“It’s no trouble,” Sasuke said. “I could need the exercise.”

“But won’t you get nauseous if you go into a coffee shop?”

“The nausea isn’t so bad anymore. I’ll be fine.”

Naruto reluctantly let him go. He was very grateful that Sasuke would offer to take care of him like that. He took a shower, and when he was done, two steaming paper cups of coffee stood waiting for him in the kitchen. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Naruto put a healthy dose of milk and sugar in the coffee, and felt much better once he’d emptied one of the cups as well as downed some water. He drank the other one while he watched TV and ate some potato chips that Sasuke miraculously hadn’t tried to throw away. He really must be getting better from that nausea.

Half an hour later, Sasuke came out if his room dressed up in dark blue jeans, a white button up shirt that was fitted to his pregnant belly, and a trench coat. Naruto suddenly felt very underdressed in his ripped jeans and worn t-shirt.

“Should I get changed?”                                                                   

He stood for Sasuke’s perusal.

“Do you have a more formal shirt or sweater?” Sasuke asked.

“Uh…” His formal clothes were pretty much limited to the blue shirt he’d worn at the dinner with Sasuke’s parents, and he hadn’t washed that one yet.

“If you’re interested, I think my old clothes would fit you.”

Sasuke led the way to his room and opened the closet. He offered Naruto a huge selection of expensive looking sweaters and button up shirts. Naruto immediately feared he’d accidentally ruin them so he chose a grey jumper that looked more worn than the others. It fitted him nicely so he supposed it must have been a little loose on Sasuke, since he was a bit more slender than Naruto.

“It looks good on you,” Sasuke said. 

Naruto tried to hide his blush and his delighted smile by scratching his cheek.

 

\-----

 

Itachi and Akemi’s house wasn’t even half as lavish as Itachi and Sasuke’s family estate, but it undeniably screamed wealth. It was situated in a nice neighborhood, and had a pool and a huge garden. It was in that garden the party was held. A bunch of Itachi and Akemi’s colleagues were there, as well as their friends and family. Mikoto greeted Naruto with a bright smile and a kiss on each cheek. Fugaku brusquely shook his hand. Naruto still hadn’t quite figured out if the man disliked him or if he just was that way on a daily basis.

Akemi was positively radiant. 

“Congratulations,” Naruto said. She beamed and kissed him on both cheeks.

“I’m so glad you could come,” Itachi said as he shook Naruto’s hand.

There was a bunch of aunts and uncles there, of which all the former totted around Akemi and touched her stomach, despite the fact that she wasn’t showing yet.

“I’m so glad you’re finally giving this family a proper heir,” one aunt said.

Sasuke was standing right next to them but apparently that didn’t stop the aunt from ignoring him and talking as though neither he nor his 30 weeks pregnant belly was right there.

Naruto felt his anger towards these inconsiderate relatives increase as the day wore on. It wasn’t just a few aunts and uncles who ignored him. No, all of them pretended he wasn’t there. When they were getting seated for dinner, one aunt even took a seat on the last vacant chair so that Sasuke, who was pregnant and tired, had to stand. She didn’t even glance at him.

Itachi saw it too, and he hurried to offer his own chair to Sasuke while he went and found more seats.

“Why are your family such jerks,” Naruto grumbled after they’d eaten.

Sasuke shrugged. “They don’t like what I’ve done. They think it’s unnatural.”

“What does it matter what they think? Your child is as important as Itachi and Akemi’s anyway.”

“Try to tell them that.”

Evening arrived and while a lot of people left, a few new people arrived.

Naruto yawned and looked out over the garden from a three he was leaning against. He’d lost sight of Sasuke a while ago, but now he spotted him talking to a tall, brown-haired guy over by the pool. The man was grinning almost flirtatiously at Sasuke, and it made Naruto’s hand clench around his bottle of beer. He was about to go over to them when someone said his name.

He turned towards a man with his brown hair and dark, hooded eyes.

“You are Uzumaki Naruto, right?”

Naruto nodded.

The man was watching him intently. Why did Naruto get the feeling that those sharp eyes were ruthlessly scrutinizing him?

“I’m sorry,” Naruto said. “Should I know who you are?”

He was honestly a little confused.

The man smiled crookedly. “Figures he hasn’t told you about me.”

“Who? Sasuke?”

“I know it’s not my table, but… are you screwing him?”

Naruto didn’t say anything for a long moment, he just held the man’s gaze while he internally gaped at the direct question. “No,” he bit out. “I’m not.”

The man snorted. Then he shook his head. “But you want him. Who doesn’t? Even when he looks as he does, as huge as a whale.”

“I think he’s beautiful,” Naruto said. His teeth were clenched so hard he could hear them creak in protest.

“So did I,” the man said. “Until I really got to know him.”

“Who are you?” Naruto demanded to know.

The man shook his head again and took a swig from his beer.

“He was okay in the beginning,” he said. His eyes were fixed on Sasuke. “Sexy as fuck and good in bed. He was a real head turner. But in the end, all that wasn’t worth it when weighted up against his personality. You should be careful around him. He draws you in like a moth to a flame, but just like a moth you’ll burn when you come too close.”

Naruto grit his teeth. “Maybe I’m not a moth.”

He’d had enough of this. If the man was determined to just insult him, then he didn’t feel inclined to be polite enough to stay. He walked away.

“Maybe I’m not a moth,” he muttered to himself and chugged the rest of his beer. “There are cooler ways to tell someone off.”

“What are you mumbling about?”

Naruto spun around.

Sasuke.

“Hi!” he nearly shouted. Then he modified himself. “Hi.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Me? No!”

He probably was a bit more drunk than what was advisable at such a party, but Sasuke didn’t need to know that. Naruto attempted to act casual by leaning on a tree, but the tree was farther away than it first seemed and he ended up almost face planting.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he muttered and batted away Sasuke’s helping hands. This resulted in him accidentally hitting Sasuke’s stomach.

“Shit! I’m sorry!” He grabbed Sasuke’s stomach as thought that would somehow make up for the punch. Instead it just led to a really awkward moment where Naruto realized in slow motion that he was practically feeling up Sasuke. They both took a hurried step backwards, their cheeks red.

“Sorry!” Naruto rubbed the back of his head. “I… I just wanted to make sure she was okay, you know. I didn’t intend to, um…”

Sasuke looked a little amused. “Maybe it’s about time we went home.”

Naruto sighed in relief. “Yeah.”

On the car ride home, Naruto watched Sasuke’s profile from where he was lying reclined in the passenger seat. He couldn’t help but notice that Sasuke looked skinnier than when he first met him.

“How is work?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” Sasuke answered on autopilot.

“Please, you can do better than that. What do you do, exactly?”

Sasuke sighed. “I’m basically just a glorified secretary for my brother.” He tapped the wheel with slender fingers, and then he continued, “I wanted to say no to the job. I didn’t want to give my father the satisfaction of seeing me coming back, begging for a job after all the shit that went down after high school when I refused to take a business education. But it’s better than accepting his money. At least I’m working for it. I don’t have a chance anywhere else, anyway. I’ve applied to hundreds of jobs, but they all backtrack when they realize I’m pregnant.”

Naruto hadn’t realized before now how tough all this must be on Sasuke.

“You shouldn’t have to stress so much about money and a job in your state.”

Sasuke snorted. “Don’t you start too. My family is bad enough with that as it is. They worry too much.”

“Maybe you make it a bit too easy for them to worry.”

Sasuke didn’t answer.

He parked the car in the garage and helped Naruto out the door.

“My feet feel like lead,” Naruto complained. He’d been drinking heavily for two days straight, now. He was too old for this.

“You’re only 26,” Sasuke said.

Apparently Naruto had said it out loud.

“You shouldn’t have to steady me,” he told Sasuke. He pushed the button on the elevator that lead from the underground garage to the ground floor of the apartment complex.

He hobbled into the elevator and leant on the railing. The elevator ride, however short, was making him a bit dizzy.

Sasuke had to steady him a bit up the stairs, but Naruto tried his best to manage on his own. He didn’t want to accidentally topple over and drag Sasuke down with him. Once they were inside the apartment, Naruto collapsed on top of the dining table.

“Shit… I’m sorry if I break your table. I just have to lie down for a bit…”

“Don’t worry, I’ve never liked that ugly table. My ex wanted it and now I’m stuck with it.”

“Hey,” Naruto said. “Let’s throw it out! Or, better yet; we can destroy it and make it into firewood!”

Sasuke laughed. It was both a surprising and refreshing sound. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll just launch myself onto it and break it with my stomach.”

“No, no don’t,” Naruto laughed. He stood and grabbed Sasuke in a pretense to hold him back. “Maybe you’re heavy, but I doubt you’re that heavy.”

“I _feel_ that heavy.”

”You _look_ good, though.”

Something between them changed in an instant, and suddenly Naruto became very aware of how his arms were draped so casually around Sasuke’s waist. He didn’t pull back, though. He looked into Sasuke’s eyes and thought he saw them mirror the desire that he himself felt in that moment. He leant in minutely. Their faces were so close; their mouths barely an inch apart. Naruto was certain he saw Sasuke’s lips part… and then Sasuke turned away.

Naruto released his hold on him.

“I need to go to bed,” Sasuke said. “I have work tomorrow.”

He glanced briefly at Naruto over his shoulder as he walked away. A tender but, in Naruto’s eyes, almost saddened look played over his face. Then he turned and the moment was over. Naruto was left standing alone in the dim light from the hallway. He felt like an invisible stone had just come to rest heavily on his shoulders. He shuffled to his bedroom and collapsed on his bed, fully clothed. Thankfully sleep came easily.


	8. The Watchdogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, hello, did anyone order some angst with a side of 'wtf'? No? No one? ... Well, here it is anyway.

Sasuke acted a bit strange towards Naruto for the next few weeks. They barely talked together and they seldom saw each other. Sasuke was either at work, or he retreated back to his room. At first Naruto didn’t think much of it, but after a while he started wondering if it was deliberate. Was Sasuke avoiding him?

Itachi started coming over more often. Usually he’d spend the time with Sasuke in his bedroom, which made Naruto wonder if Sasuke was sick.

“Is he alright?” He asked Itachi one day when he met him as he returned from work and Itachi was about to leave.

“There’s nothing serious,” Itachi said. “He’s just tired and needs a lot of rest.”

“Let me know if there’s something I can do.”

Itachi smiled. He patted Naruto’s shoulder. “Thank you, Naruto. You’re a good guy.”

Naruto worked the whole weekend, which meant he woke up late and worked until midnight. On Sunday he hadn’t seen Sasuke at all the last few days. He was starting to wonder if something had happened. It was late, but Naruto couldn’t go to bed without knowing that Sasuke was okay. He knocked on the door to his room.

“Hello?”

No answer.

“Sasuke? Are you in there?”

Naruto opened the door quietly and peeked inside. The room was dark and cold. A window was open; one of the floor length curtains moved in the gentle breeze.

“Sasuke?”

He still hadn’t gotten an answer, and not a single evidence of life. Maybe Sasuke wasn’t here? He walked into the room, his eyes fixed on the bed. He grew slowly used to the darkness, and could see a lump on the bed under the covers. He walked up to the side of the bed just to be sure that it really was Sasuke who was lying there and not just a pillow or something.

It was Sasuke. His face was illuminated by the streetlights that reached in behind the moving curtain. He looked peaceful in his sleep. Naruto stood there for a moment, just watching him. He thought about that moment exactly two weeks ago when he almost kissed Sasuke. It hurt to think that… that Sasuke didn’t return his feelings.

He’d been foolish, Naruto chided himself.

He’d thought he had a chance with someone like Sasuke. He wished he could just tell himself to get over it, but the truth was, he realized, that he was in too deep. He finally turned away from Sasuke and left his room, quietly closing the door behind him. 

He wondered how he was supposed to get through the two last months with the knowledge that he didn’t have a chance with Sasuke. Maybe it was time he started looking for a new place to live.

 

\-----

 

Sasuke eventually came out of his room more often, but he was getting increasingly grumpy. He barely spoke two words to Naruto. Everything Naruto did seemed to annoy him. Naruto fixed them food, and Sasuke tersely reminded him that he couldn’t eat raw seafood. Naruto cleaned the apartment, and Sasuke complained about the dishes that he’d totally forgotten about. Naruto cleaned up the living room after himself every night, and Sasuke chose to tear him a new one that one time he fell asleep in front of the TV with a couple of beer cans littering the floor.

Naruto couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to stay out of Sasuke’s way as much as possible. Soon, he’d been visiting all his friends in the span of a week, and had nowhere left to go but home. He really should looks for a new place to live, he thought. But just thinking of starting that grueling search made his heart sink down into his stomach. And maybe… maybe it also had something to with the thought of never seeing Sasuke again.

 

\-----

 

One morning, Naruto once again woke up to find a stranger in the apartment. By then, that wasn’t a surprise, so Naruto just said hi and went to the kitchen.

He made himself a sandwich for breakfast and plopped down on the couch next to the stranger. The guy was playing on Naruto’s PlayStation, which Naruto had hooked up the TV in the living room because it was bigger than his own TV.

“Is this yours?” the guy asked.

“Yeah.”

“Cool. Sasuke never bothers to play games.”

“How do you know Sasuke?”

“I’m his fuck buddy,” the guy said, his eyes still glued to the screen.

Naruto choked on his food and sputtered crumbs over the carpet. Shit, Sasuke wouldn’t like that, he thought absently. He coughed and hacked until the guy gave him a worried side-glance.

“Are you okay, bud?”

“I’m fine,” Naruto gasped. “I’m good.”

“Hey, you don’t have trouble with gays, do you?”

That almost launched Naruto into a new coughing attack.

“No,” he says. “That’d be hypocritical of me.”

The guy grinned. It made him look feral. There was something familiar about him, Naruto thought. He had brown, spiky hair and unusually sharp canines.

“I’m Kiba, by the way,” the guy said.

“Naruto,” Naruto said. “Um… Will I be seeing you a lot?”

Kiba shrugged. “That depends, but the princess was pretty fucking horny so I’m guessing yes. Until today I haven’t slept with him since the break-up.”

Naruto felt his heart sink at the idea that this guy could just walk right in and share something so intimate with Sasuke, while Naruto just had to stand by and listen to him talking about it. He curbed the initial urge to be rude to the guy. Kiba couldn’t be held responsible for Naruto’s jealousy over a man that would never be his. Besides, he’d said fuck buddies, which implied that there weren’t feelings involved… Still, Naruto felt a little hurt that Sasuke hadn’t considered him desirable enough for even a quick fuck.

There was one thing he noticed about what Kiba said, though, that he felt he should address.

“… The princess?”

“That’s what we called him at college because he was so fucking stuck-up and pretty.”

“Are you one of his rich friends?”

“Fuck no. Those snooty brats went to ordinary high school like the rest of us.”

“So you…” Naruto cleared his throat. “You’re just, like… a casual hook up?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Kiba grinned at Naruto again. “Why so curious?”

Naruto felt his face get warm. “No reason,” he said. “Just… Wondering…”

Kiba chuckled. “You’re hot for him,” he said. “But don’t worry, it’s nothing new. It’s like a disease, really. Very few are unaffected.”

Naruto mulled over that while he finished his breakfast. By the time he was done, Sasuke was awake too.

“Why are you still here?” he asked when he saw Kiba.

“Just keepin’ your roomie company. He was so sad and lonely.”

Naruto elbowed him, which made Kiba chuckle. Sasuke looked thoroughly annoyed. He looked from Naruto to Kiba and seemed to see a potential for disaster. Then he shook his head and went to the kitchen. Naruto decided to follow him to see if there was something he could do. He put his plate in the dishwasher and was about to put away the food when Kiba beat him to it and started making his own sandwich.

“Go back to your own place and eat,” Sasuke said.

“Aw, but my roomies are so boring, and Hinata refuses to make me food.”

“I wonder why,” Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto watched them talk together, and suddenly he realized where he’d seen Kiba before. At Itachi and Akemi’s garden party. It was the guy who had seemed to flirt with Sasuke.

Naruto suddenly felt redundant. He quietly slipped away to his room, and no one seemed to notice.

 

\-----

 

The following week Naruto had few shifts at the restaurant. He even had the day off on Wednesday. He was lying on the couch, leafing through a book that he had found under the living room table, but which he had zero interest in, when he heard Sasuke come home. Naruto sat up and put away the book. The whole apartment was in perfect order, so Sasuke would hopefully not have anything to throw a fit over. Naruto had waited with making dinner until Sasuke came back so that he could ask him what he wanted first.

Sasuke didn’t seem to notice him when he walked into the dining room, and Naruto didn’t say anything. He wondered if it had gotten so far that Sasuke was actively ignoring him even when he was right there. He wasn’t sure why Sasuke had been avoiding him lately, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with the almost-kiss.

Naruto had been drunk at the time, but Sasuke hadn’t. He probably remembered it all too well, and apparently he abhorred it.

Naruto took a steadying breath and was about to get up and offer to help Sasuke with the bag of groceries he was carrying, but stopped when Sasuke suddenly leant heavily on the dinner table, one hand cradling his stomach. He was next to him in a leap, just in time to catch Sasuke as his legs gave out under him and he sunk to his knees.

“What’s wrong?” Naruto said.

Sasuke was breathing heavily, clutching his stomach.

“Is it the baby?”

Naruto fumbled with his phone, ready to call the emergency number.

Sasuke shook his head. He steadied himself with his hands on the floor, his head bowed. He was hyperventilating.

“I’ll call an ambulance,” Naruto said, lifting his phone.

“No,” Sasuke gasped. “No… It’s not serious… J – just give me a paper bag.”

Naruto hesitated for a second before he rushed to the kitchen and found a paper bag. Sasuke grabbed it and breathed into it.

“Should I call Itachi?” Naruto asked.

He kneeled next to Sasuke and placed a hand at his shoulder.

Sasuke shook his head. “No… I’m fine…”

He looked anything but fine.

“He’ll just worry,” Sasuke added. He was starting to calm down a bit. “And then he’ll tell mother, and then you have it going.”

Naruto folded his legs and pulled Sasuke closer. Sasuke leant on him. He was still breathing into the paper bag, but after a while he let it drop. Soon he straightened up. Naruto steadied him as he got to his feet, but Sasuke told him he was fine. He followed him into the kitchen.

“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself,” Naruto said.

Sasuke slammed the bag of groceries down on the kitchen island.

“Can people stop telling me what’s best for me?” He snarled. “It’s always the same. ‘Think about the baby’, ‘don’t stress yourself’, ‘you’re too vulnerable’. I am thinking about the baby, that’s why I have to work! I can’t just stop and lie down and… do nothing! And I’m not stressed! I’m not vulnerable! I can take care of myself!”

He slammed the door to the fridge shut after having opened it and not putting anything inside of it.

Naruto lifted his hands. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it that way, I’m just worried…”

“Yeah, you all say that, but you’re just using it as an excuse to tie me up!” Sasuke braced himself on the kitchen counter. “The reason why I’m stressed is because of you and everyone else who think you have a right to make decisions about me and my body just because I’m pregnant.”

“I’m sorry,” Naruto said meekly.

Sasuke rubbed his temple. “I need to lie down for a bit,” he said.

Naruto prepared dinner, but Sasuke didn’t come out of his room for the rest of that day. Despite Sasuke’s words, Naruto felt he had to contact someone. He couldn’t take the sole responsibility for helping Sasuke with whatever he was going through. He didn’t know him well enough yet. So he called Itachi.

“I think you should come and see him. He hasn’t eaten since he came back from work, and he had some kind of panic attack…”

“I can’t leave work,” Itachi said, “But I’ll send someone.”

Naruto sat up and watched the news without really paying attention to them while he waited for the doorbell to ring. At eleven in the evening, the doorbell finally buzzed. Naruto opened the door downstairs without answering and unlocked the apartment door. The man that eventually appeared at the top of the stairs was unknown to Naruto. He was tall and had dark eyes and hair. At first glance Naruto knew he could place him in the Uchiha family, but there was one thing that made Naruto certain he’d never met him before. Half his face was deformed by an ugly scar. Naruto had trouble looking away from it and meeting the man’s eyes. Judging by the careful blankness of the man’s face, he had a feeling he was used to it.

“I heard Sasuke was feeling ill?”

“Yeah, he’s in his room.”

The man breezed past Naruto without introducing himself, and disappeared into Sasuke’s room. He was there for a few minutes before he came back out. Naruto was waiting in the kitchen, warming his hands on a cup of tea.

“Do you want some tea?” He asked the man.

He just shook his head.

“There are leftovers in the fridge,” Naruto said, “If Sasuke’s hungry.”

The man opened the fridge and took out the leftovers. He put a pan on the stove to warm them up.

“How is he doing?” Naruto asked.

The man finally looked at him properly. “Not too good. Thank you for looking after him.”

“I’m just worried he doesn’t take properly care of himself.”

The man hesitated a bit before he spoke. “He’s known in our family as the trouble maker. The one who always takes unnecessary risks and cares little about his own good.”

He seated himself by the table, opposite of Naruto.

“I’m Obito, his uncle.”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto.”

“It’s very good that you’re here,” Obito said. “He needs someone to look after him. He might think he can manage on his own, but he doesn’t care enough about himself to do it.”

Naruto fiddled with his cup. “He hasn’t told me what’s wrong yet…”

“I don’t think he’s told anyone. Itachi said that he suspects that Sasuke’s been having some trouble at work… He mentioned that some coworkers might have said something to him. He’s more fragile than he seems, especially now. My sister, his mother, has been trying to make him come home so she can take care of him, but it’s no secret that he and his father doesn’t go well together.”

“I’ve noticed.”

They sat in silent for a moment.

“You don’t happen to be Kakashi’s partner?” Naruto said.

“Yeah,” he gave Naruto a crooked smile. “That’s right. I heard of your meeting. He likes you.”

“He does?”

Obito chuckled. “Don’t look so surprised. He might act weird, but he’s good at heart.”

He poured the leftover rice and broth over into a bowl, and filled a glass with water.

“I better go in and feed the lion.”

Naruto gave him his deepest sympathy. He had a feeling Sasuke wouldn’t be very happy about being force-fed.

Vortex jumped up on the counter and meowed softly. Naruto brought him into his lap and scratched him behind his ear.

“He’s more like a kitten, actually,” he muttered to himself. Vortex curled up on his lap, purring.

Obito came back out half an hour later.

“I would have wrung the neck of that ex of his if I’d gotten ahold of him. What kind of dickhead leaves their heavily pregnant spouse alone like that?”

“Do you know why he left?”

Obito shrugged. “I don’t care. I can understand that it can be tough to on the relationship to be expecting a child, and I know that Sasuke isn’t exactly easy to deal with even on good days, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to just leave him alone with all this. He attracts all the wrong guys because of his looks. They’re drawn in because he’s pretty and then they realize they can’t deal with him, so they leave, blaming him. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.”

Naruto suddenly felt like Obito was measuring him a bit critically.

“How long are you staying here, Naruto?”

“Um… I’m supposed to move out when, uh… when the baby is born. I guess he’ll need more space, and… well… I’ve been looking for a new place to live, so…”

Obito nodded. “Just don’t get any ideas. He’s vulnerable right now. He’s not ready for a new relationship.”

Naruto wondered how Obito could be so certain that Naruto was interested in Sasuke. Had someone told him that he was gay? Maybe Itachi? Or perhaps he was just taking his precautions.

Naruto swallowed heavily. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

 

\-----

 

Sasuke was in the kitchen when Naruto got up around noon the next morning. He looked tired and was nursing a cup of tea.

“Hi… Are you feeling okay?” Naruto said.

Sasuke just gave him a narrow eyed look. “I told you not to blabber.”

“… I’m sorry… I was worried… You weren’t eating…”

Sasuke sighed. “How many times do I have to tell people that I can take care of myself?” He sounded mostly dejected.

“I meant no disrespect…”

“You’re just worried about the baby,” Sasuke said quietly. “That’s all you think about. You think I don’t care about her. But I do. It’d be nice if you could trust me enough to take my word for it.”

Naruto didn’t know what more to say. He stared down at his toes.

“Itachi told me to take a few days off,” Sasuke said. He got to his feet and brushed past Naruto. “I hope you’re happy.”

 

\-----

 

When Naruto came home from work late the next day, he heard Sasuke talking in the kitchen. He didn’t think much about it, just shrugged off his jacket and kicked off his shoes like usual. In the hallway he stopped to check a message from Sakura on his phone, and that was when he picked up a man’s voice from the kitchen that sounded slightly familiar. He just couldn’t place it.

“… Are you crying?” He heard the voice say.

“Shut up,” Sasuke hissed.

“No way…”

“You made me this way and then you left me.”

Naruto stood very quietly in the hallway, his phone forgotten in his hand.

“ _I_ didn’t make you that way,” the other man said. “We agreed about it…”

“And then you left.”

“You know why.”

“Yeah, you couldn’t stand me anymore. Like this, I disgusted you.”

“You’ve never disgusted me,” the stranger said, his voice a little softer. “I just… I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready for it.”

“Neither was I, but I thought we were doing this together.”

Naruto desperately wished he were somewhere else. He stared longingly at the door. Could he get away without them hearing him?

“I just wanted to tell you that I’ll make sure the two of you have everything you need,” he heard the stranger say. “You shouldn’t want for anything.”

“Of course not,” Sasuke said. “You’re filthy rich. What does a few thousand matter to you?”

There was a long pause. “I’m sorry, Sasuke-”

“And so am I. But it doesn’t change anything.”

Another long pause. Naruto started backing off towards the door.

”How… how is she?” The stranger said.

“Why are you suddenly so interested in her wellbeing?” Sasuke’s voice was icy. ”You seemed not to give a fuck before.”

“That’s because I didn’t want to end up with a frying pan impaled in my face.”

“…It was the closest thing.”

“Then I’m thankful the fridge wasn’t closer.”

Sasuke huffed. “Are we done here?”

Naruto realized he had to make a choice right now; either bolt for the door, or pretend he’d just arrived. He didn’t have time to do either before a man that he thought he recognized appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. He had brown hair in a ponytail, and dark, intelligent eyes.

It was the guy he’d met at Itachi’s party.

The man recognized him too. He gave him an almost imperceptible nod.

“I just arrived,” Naruto said. “I didn’t mean to snoop…”

“No worries,” the man said. “Nothing that was said here needs to be kept secret.”

Sasuke looked like he begged to differ. He’d gotten slightly paler when he saw Naruto.

“Naruto, this is my charming ex, Shikamaru,” Sasuke bit out. “Shikamaru, Naruto.”

“We’ve met,” Shikamaru said. He picked up his jacket from the dining table and slid it on.

“I guess I should congratulate you,” he added.

Sasuke looked like a thundercloud but Shikamaru continued undisturbed. His eyes were on Naruto. “Just take my advice; don’t get him pissed off.”

Naruto frowned. “I don’t need your advice.”

“Haven’t you wondered why there’s a huge dent in the wall in the kitchen?”

Naruto had actually wondered about that, but he’d forgotten to ask.

“That’s from when my darling ex-husband threw a frying pan at me,” Shikamaru said.

“I was hyped up on hormones cures,” Sasuke bit out. “I don’t normally throw frying pans at people.”

“Thankfully, that’s not my problem anymore.” He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and stuck it between his lips. “You’ll hear from my lawyer.”

With a terse nod to the both of them, he slipped out the door. It closed quietly behind him.

The silence that settled in his wake was heavy.

“Um… did you really throw a frying pan at him?” Naruto said.

“As I said, I wasn’t myself at that time,” Sasuke bit out. “I got the wrong hormone prescriptions in the beginning and they messed with my head.”  
Naruto believed him.

He nodded towards the door where Shikamaru had just disappeared. “Do you miss him?”

“No,” Sasuke said. “I never loved him and I don’t think he ever loved me.”

He turned away, signaling that he’d had enough of the questions. Naruto didn’t push it.

Sasuke retreated to his room and stayed there the entire evening.

Around eleven o’clock that night, Naruto knocked on Sasuke’s bedroom door.

“Hey,” he said through the closed door. “I made dumplings. I thought you might be hungry…”

He didn’t expect a reply and he didn’t get one either. He stood there for a long time, debating. Finally he decided that he’d just have to take matters into his own hands. He couldn’t keep calling Itachi every time Sasuke wouldn’t eat. He brought the dumplings and opened the door. Sasuke’s room was dark and cold, like it’d been the last time he was there. The same window was open, the curtain billowing in the wind.

Naruto could make out Sasuke’s shape on the bed. He didn’t move even when Naruto entered the room. He walked around to Sasuke’s side of the bed, and placed the plate of food on the nightstand.

Then he stood there indecisively for a moment. Sasuke’s eyes were open, but he was looking past Naruto.

“How are you doing?” Naruto said softly. He felt like he needed to lower his voice in this dark and silent place.

Sasuke stirred. He sat up and scooted backwards on the bed till he was leaning against the headboard, a pile of pillows behind his back.

“Do you want to touch?” he asked.

Naruto just stood there gaping. Touch? Touch what…?

Sasuke caressed his stomach. “She’s kicking now.”

Comprehension dawned on Naruto. “Oh! Yeah, I’d love to… if you’re okay with it?”

Sasuke reached out and grabbed Naruto’s hand. He pulled Naruto closer and told him to sit down. Naruto did. He let Sasuke place his hand on the swell of his stomach. His heart jolted up into his throat as Sasuke pressed the palm of his hand tight against his bump.

“Do you feel it?”

Naruto gasped softly. He felt her move right underneath his palm. He moved his hand without Sasuke’s guidance, pressing it to where he could feel the kicks. He scooted closer.

“Wow… She’s really there… I can feel her.” He grinned at Sasuke. “She kicked again!”

Sasuke smiled, but only briefly. He cast his eyes down. Naruto hardly noticed. He was too busy being amazed by the life he was feeling right underneath Sasuke’s skin.

“I’ve wanted to touch for so long,” Naruto said. “I mean… Touch the baby, not…” He blushed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I got what you meant.”

He lifted his hand. Then he hesitated a second before he placed it over Naruto’s.

Naruto looked up at him. His heart thumped in his chest. Sasuke’s eyes looked intent and vulnerable at the same time. He opened his mouth, but didn’t speak. Then he closed his mouth again. He looked away, and removed his hand.

Naruto wanted to tell him not to move away, not to close up, but he knew that would only make him close up even more. He removed his hand from Sasuke’s stomach and sat there for a minute, unsure what to say.

“Okay… Um… I guess I should go to bed.” He stood and hesitated for another moment before he muttered a ‘night’ and hurried towards the door.

“Naruto,” Sasuke said, and Naruto turned in the doorway.

Sasuke smiled. “Thanks for the dumplings.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it might seem like everything is going in the wrong direction at this point, but just hang on ^^;
> 
> I'd love to know your reaction on who the ex was; did you guess or did it come completely out of the blue? I sorta hoped that someone would have tried to guess already... I hope it didn't come as too much of a shocker ><


	9. That One Word

The days passed and slowly things went back to how it had been before the disastrous almost-kiss. Sasuke wasn’t avoiding Naruto anymore, but there was still something between them that felt different… Naruto just couldn’t pinpoint it. This time, though, the change felt nice. Sasuke was… softer, somehow. He would come and sit next to Naruto and try to start a conversation between them, a little brusquely at times but Naruto liked the fact that he was trying.

Naruto had a million questions; about Shikamaru, about Kiba… but he didn’t dare ask. He didn’t want to disrupt the peace that finally had fallen between them. Instead he wanted to enjoy the time they had left together.

That reminded him that he needed to talk to Sasuke about when he was supposed to move out. He was not looking forward to the conversation. He didn’t want to leave… Just thinking about maybe never seeing Sasuke again… It hurt too much to even consider.

As days turned into weeks, Naruto’s happiness over Sasuke’s returned attention and occasional affection gave way to a growing fear.

He knew he was about to lose Sasuke and he couldn’t just stand back and watch it happen. But what was he supposed to do? Just walk up to him and confess?

Well…

The thought was daunting. He knew there was a huge chance that he’d be told off. But if it were even the smallest chance for something to become more between them, then he would forever beat himself up about it if he didn’t grab it.

He knew he needed to take that chance. He talked himself up and told himself it would be okay if Sasuke said no. He’d survive. Then he approached Sasuke with every intention of telling him his well-rehearsed confession… and chickened out.

He started counting weeks. How long would it be until Sasuke would be forced to throw him out? He was about… 36 weeks along now. Fuck… Didn’t that mean, like… nine months? Sasuke was already in his ninth month?!

More days passed and no confession happened. Naruto was working late shifts, so he barely saw Sasuke the whole week. That weekend Naruto unusually enough wasn’t working. He knew it would be the perfect time to sit Sasuke down and talk to him. He was geared up for it. This time he was really doing it. He had Sasuke to himself, sitting next to him on the couch… And then Sasuke’s phone rang.

Naruto heard Sasuke talk in the kitchen, but he was speaking so softly that he couldn’t hear what he was saying. Naruto watched a documentary about birds intently, but wasn’t actually paying attention. His thoughts were distracted with planning what he should say when Sasuke got off the phone. Then Sasuke got quiet. He appeared in the doorway and for a moment he just stood there. Naruto glanced up at him. He sensed that something was off.

“What is it?”

“Itachi just called…” Sasuke came over and sat down next to Naruto. “Akemi… she miscarried.”

“Oh…” Naruto felt his heart sink down into his stomach. Itachi and Akemi had seemed so happy about the pregnancy. “I’m so sorry…”

Sasuke shook his head. “It’s not the first time.” He sighed. “I try to tell Itachi not to get his hopes up, but he can’t help it… and then he gets just as broken every time.”

“That’s so shitty… But if it keeps happening, isn’t there something they can do…?”

“Akemi used to be sick a lot. That’s why they have trouble getting pregnant,” Sasuke said softly. “I feel a bit guilty about it… I weren’t even meant to get pregnant, I’m not built for it, and I still beat them to it.”

Naruto touched Sasuke’s shoulder. “But I bet they’ll love your child and they’ll treat her like she’s their own when they babysit her.”

“I asked if they wanted to adopt,” Sasuke whispered.

Naruto blinked. “When?”

“A long time ago. Right after Shikamaru left, and before I met you. In the beginning, I… I wanted to take an abortion. But it had already been over three months, so I couldn’t. It was so difficult… I just couldn’t stand the thought of… I just… I didn’t even want to see her. I didn’t want her.”

Naruto moved a little closer to Sasuke. He wanted to hug him and tell him that it wasn’t his fault that he felt that way. That it was natural to panic after such a turn in his life. But he wasn’t sure Sasuke would appreciate being hugged, and before he could say anything, Sasuke continued.

“I asked Itachi and Akemi if they wanted her, but Itachi said no. He didn’t want me to do it. He wanted me to take care of her myself. Akemi told me I’d love her no matter what, but what does she know? I’m not a woman, I don’t have a maternal instinct.”

“Don’t say that… I’m sure you’ll care just as much about her as any mother would.”

Sasuke bit his lip. “I feel so ugly, and fat, and deformed… and… despite all that, every time she kicks or moves, I feel so astonished that she’s alive, that she’s real. But I know nothing about how it’ll be when she comes out, and that scares me.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Naruto said after a pause, “I think you’re beautiful. I think your stomach is beautiful. If anything, it makes you even more astonishing. I think you’ll love her. I think you’ll adore her. And if it gets too bad, then know that I’m here for you, no matter what. I’ll stay if you want me to, and I will love her like I love you. I promise you that.”

Naruto thought he felt his own heart beat somewhere in his throat. His ears were buzzing. The confession had slipped out so easily that he didn’t even realize he was going to say it until it was already out there. It took a moment before he worked through his internal panic and realized that Sasuke was crying.

That seemed like a bad sign…

Sasuke reached up and cupped Naruto’s cheeks. “Why are you making this so difficult?” he murmured.

Naruto didn’t have time to as much as say ‘huh?’ before Sasuke tilted his head and pressed his lips to Naruto’s in a wet, salty kiss. It was lingering and gentle. Naruto was too shocked to react at first, and when he desperately tried to kiss back Sasuke had already moved away.

His hands still remained on Naruto’s cheeks, though.

“I want to…” he started saying.

Naruto stared at him, encouraging him. “Yes?”

“I wish we could become something more,” he almost whispered.

Naruto pushed closer. He wanted to kiss him again, but Sasuke leant away.

“Wait,” he said.

“I want that too,” Naruto said in a hurry, afraid that Sasuke would think he didn’t want it.

“I can’t…” Sasuke murmured.

“Why not?”

Sasuke shook his head. “You heard what Shikamaru said. You don’t know what you’re signing up for. I’m not actually violent, but you know that I’m a month away from giving birth to another man’s baby. You’ll jump into this relationship just at the hardest part, just where my ex left me because he couldn’t deal with it.”

“I’m not like that,” Naruto insisted. “I know what I’m doing, Sasuke. I know that I want this. I already love this child like it was my own, and I haven’t even met her. But I love her because she’s yours.”

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly. He caressed Naruto’s cheeks.

“You’re too kind,” he whispered.

Naruto kissed Sasuke again. This time he didn’t move away. Instead he met Naruto with an eagerness that surprised him. He almost climbed into Naruto’s lap, probably would have if it weren’t for his belly that was blocking the way. Naruto answered the eagerness with just as much fervor. He hadn’t even been aware that such a desperate desire rested right under the surface, but now it broke free and he had no idea where to start or where to stop. His hands roamed over Sasuke’s body, cupped his stomach and felt an eager kick against his palm.

“She’s kicking,” he murmured between kisses.

“She feels…. my blood spike…” Sasuke said.

Naruto slipped his hands under Sasuke’s t-shirt, but was disappointed when his hands didn’t touch skin. Sasuke was of course wearing maternity clothes that covered his whole stomach. Naruto grumbled.

Sasuke pulled back a little, making the kisses a bit less insistent. Naruto wanted to continue, but Sasuke didn’t let him. The pleasant buzz in his body started clearing a bit, and he gave Sasuke one, last soft kiss before they pulled apart.

He placed his hands on Sasuke’s stomach again and felt the baby’s kicks still. Sasuke curled up against Naruto’s side, his head resting in the crook of Naruto’s neck.

“Are you really sure about this?”

Naruto nuzzled Sasuke’s hair. “Yeah. One hundred percent.”

“You must have realized what a mess I am a long time ago…”

“You’re not,” Naruto said. “I love you exactly the way you are.”

Sasuke tensed a bit and Naruto had to quench his reflex to hold him tighter.

“You drop that word very easily,” Sasuke said.

Naruto had to think for a moment before he realized what Sasuke meant. The word love… it seemed to tick him.

“You’ve only known me for a couple of months,” Sasuke continued.

“It feels like much longer. It feels like a lifetime.”

It feels like I’ve known you my whole life, he wanted to say. It feels like leaving you would break me. But he didn’t say those things. He didn’t know where these strong feelings came from. They almost scared him a little, and he didn’t want to scare Sasuke away with the intensity of them.

“I can’t promise you there’ll be a lot of sex,” Sasuke said.

Naruto blinked. “Um… that’s fine… I totally understand that.”

“Moron,” Sasuke muttered. “I don’t think you really understand. I’m about to have a baby. When do you think we’ll get the time for each other?”

He sat up, struggling a bit with the extra weight that inhibited his movements. Naruto steadied him.

“It feels like a cruel joke,” Sasuke said. “After everything I’ve been through, I thought that I didn’t deserve love. And then you came along, and I knew… I knew already when I first met you that something was special. It felt good to be with you. Simple. And it’s so cruel that I had to meet you now…” He bit his bottom lip to stop it from quivering. “I can’t expect you to go into a relationship with me at this point. I’m broken… ruined… I’m a complete mess, and this baby will eventually become a burden to you.”

“Never,” Naruto said with vehemence. “Don’t underestimate me like that. I’d go through anything for you, and I already told you, I love her like I love you.”

Sasuke smiled sadly. “There’s that word again. My whole life I’ve wanted someone to say that to me, just once, and here you are, unattainable and unable to stop saying it. Like… like a really fucking rich joke.”

“I mean it,” Naruto said. He grabbed Sasuke’s hands and waited till he had caught his gaze as well. “Just look into my eyes. I know you can read me like an open book. I’ll let you see everything that I am, Sasuke. I can’t lose you.” He pulled him closer. “Please don’t push me away.”

Sasuke averted his eyes. “Naruto…”

Naruto lifted his chin, forcing Sasuke to look him into the eyes.

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, before meeting Naruto’s gaze head on. 

“Okay,” he said at last. “But don’t come and tell me I didn’t warn you.”

Naruto felt something break forth inside of him, something warm and soft and joyous. It flooded through him with a force that made him giddy. He hugged Sasuke close.

“Fuck,” he muttered against Sasuke’s neck. “Why do you have to go and make everything so difficult?”

Sasuke embraced him after a moment of hesitation.

“I hope you realize what you’re getting into,” he whispered.

“Oh, believe me,” Naruto chuckled through tears of happiness. “I’ve met your family and I _still_ want to do this. I think you’ll have to search a long time for someone else who’s as crazy.”

Sasuke laughed.

 

\-----

 

Akemi started coming over almost every day. She watched over Sasuke like a hawk, making sure he was eating well and resting enough. She protested against Sasuke going back to work, and since Shikamaru was sending him money he didn’t really need to work, thankfully. He was very tired, that was easy to see. Going back to work would surely break him.

Akemi accompanied him to all his check up’s when Naruto couldn’t go because of work, and generally acted like a mother hen for both him and Naruto. She made sure the apartment was kept squeaky clean, much to Naruto’s horror because he had to do a lot more housework now that Akemi was basically forcing Sasuke to keep still. Soon, Naruto started feeling more like a servant than a roommate.

“We need to divert her with something,” Naruto said to Sasuke one evening after Akemi had whipped Naruto around in the kitchen. She had finally gone back home since Itachi was back from work. Unfortunately, he always worked late.

“I have a feeling she’s trying to take part in your pregnancy… She’s probably gonna start to take over raising your child too.”

“If doing that will help her through her grief, then that’s okay with me,” Sasuke said.

“I just feel like she’s taking over everything,” Naruto pouted. “You and I almost never get any time alone together.”

Sasuke leant his head on Naruto’s shoulder.

“I guess you’re right… She’s here from early in the morning until late at night. But I don’t know how to tell her that she has to leave. It’s going to break her.”

Naruto didn’t know how to tell her either.

The next day she was there again. She arrived while Naruto and Sasuke was eating breakfast. Naruto had started rising a bit earlier so that he could have more time with Sasuke. When Akemi came in, she gave them both a knowing look.

“You two seem closer lately,” she said. “Did something happen?”

They both blushed.

She grinned. “I knew it. You’re dating, right? When did it happen?”

“A couple of days ago,” Naruto said when Sasuke didn’t say anything.

“Oh, I’m so happy for you!” She hugged them both. “I hoped that you would find together, and Itachi did too. I have to tell him at once!”

She took out her phone.

“It can probably wait until tonight,” Sasuke cut in. “You don’t need to disturb him at work for this.”

“You’re right.” She put her phone back in her purse, and placed the purse on the kitchen counter. “I’m just so excited. What are we doing today? Oh, Sasuke! We should go shopping for baby clothes! Are you coming too, Naruto?”

Naruto stood from his chair and brought his half finished cup of tea to the sink. “I can’t, I have to go to work.”

Sasuke sent him a pleading gaze, but Naruto just shrugged. No way was he gonna go shopping for clothes with Akemi breathing down his neck.

 

\-----

 

The next day Akemi didn’t come over, and not the one after that either.

“What did you say to her?” Naruto asked Sasuke when it started to dawn on him that maybe she wasn’t coming back anytime soon.

Sasuke sighed. “I might have been a bit sharp towards her… but she tried to make me buy a pink, fluffy princess dress that cost thirty bucks.”

“Oh, well… Remind me not to pressure you into buying overprized pink stuff, then.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I feel a bit bad about it but she has been overstepping my boundaries for a while and I just snapped.”

“You could have told her to come over less often.”

“I did. She’ll bounce back from it, she knows how I am.”

Naruto plopped down on the couch next to Sasuke. “This means we finally have some more alone time together.”

He snaked a hand around Sasuke’s shoulders.

“Hm…”

Sasuke turned his face up to accept a kiss from Naruto. Naruto placed his other hand on Sasuke’s stomach and rubbed gently.

“How are you feeling lately?”

“Better.”

“So quitting work wasn’t that bad?”

Sasuke scoffed. “I guess not,” he conceded.

“And who do you have to thank for that?”

“Don’t push it.”

Naruto chuckled. He kissed Sasuke again. “You look much better rested. And you’re not so skinny anymore.”

“That’s because you make me so much fattening food.”

They were comfortable in each other’s arms, on that warm couch, in the soft lighting from the dimmed lamps and with the TV on mute. Naruto had longed to have the time to finally be close to Sasuke. Just sitting quietly in his company and feeling his body warmth against his side made everything feel okay. He didn’t think about tomorrow or yesterday, past or future. He just wished this moment could continue on into infinity.

Sasuke snuggled closer to him and nuzzled his cheek. Then Naruto turned his head so that their mouths could press together. Sasuke pushed into the kiss with a soft sigh. He pulled Naruto closer.

Naruto groaned. He tried to get his arms around Sasuke, but it was a bit difficult. Sasuke tried to slide closer, but that turned out to be impossible. They broke apart. Both were panting heavily.

“We should…” Naruto tried to catch his breath. “Should we take it to the bedroom?”

Sasuke hesitated.

“I mean, only if you’re ready,” Naruto hurried to add.

“I’m ready,” Sasuke said. “But I’m not sure if you are.”

“I am,” Naruto assured him.

“You think you are, but you haven’t seen me naked yet, and… It’s not…” Sasuke trailed off.

“I’ve wanted to see you naked for a long while,” Naruto admitted. “I know that you’ll look just as good without your clothes as with them.”

Sasuke sighed. “You have no idea…”

He sat up.

“But okay. I don’t want to wait for another month… or probably longer. Do you want the surprise little by little, or do you want it all at once?”

“Um… All at once?”

He wasn’t entire sure what Sasuke meant, but the sooner the better. He meant to follow him to his bedroom, but Sasuke stopped him.

“I need some time first.”

Naruto sat back down. He waited, and waited, and waited some more. He nodded off for a while and was awoken when Sasuke nudged his foot.

“Are you still up for it?” He asked.

Naruto sat up. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

He looked up at Sasuke and felt his jaw drop. Sasuke had wrapped a black satin robe around himself and Naruto could only hope and imagine that he was naked underneath.

“Come.”

Naruto followed Sasuke into his bedroom. He closed the door quietly behind them. Sasuke went over to the side of the bed, where the bedside lamp was on. He turned towards Naruto who still stood by the door.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Naruto came slowly over to him. He stopped right in front of him and caressed Sasuke’s cheek with his fingertips. Then his hands trailed downwards to the neckline of Sasuke’s robe. The robe wasn’t tied, just held together by Sasuke’s crossed arms. He uncrossed them almost reluctantly, and let Naruto open the robe and slide it down his arms so it slid to the floor.

Naruto took a step back so that he could really see Sasuke. He slid one hand over his protruding stomach. Sasuke carried himself well, even with all that extra weight. He stood there with his broad shoulders squared and his back straight. His arms and legs were muscular, so he must have used to be pretty fit. His skin was pale and spotless, and surprisingly hairless. Naruto ran his fingers over his stomach where it was most protruding, by his naval. Not a strand of hair on any part of his stomach, nor on his chest.

“The hormones… they make me grow less hair,” Sasuke said, as though he knew what Naruto was thinking. “It’s a side effect…”

Naruto knelt before him. Sasuke looked surprised. He shifted his feet. Naruto placed one hand on each side of Sasuke’s stomach and kissed his way down across his naval and further down. He heard Sasuke’s breathing become shallower. He brushed the head of Sasuke’s erect cock with his fingers. Sasuke shivered.

The bulk of Sasuke’s stomach was starting to become a problem. Naruto nearly had to twist is neck to reach his cock with his mouth in that position. He gave up.

“Lie down,” he said.

Sasuke had to kneel on the bed first before he cold turn around and lie down. Naruto took off his t-shirt and unzipped his pants before he climbed in between Sasuke’s legs. He took Sasuke’s cock between his lips and sucked it into his mouth.

Sasuke groaned.

Naruto kissed the underside of his belly. Then he put his cock between his lips again and took it slowly all the way into his mouth. Sasuke made a choked sound. Naruto sucked gently and laved the sensitive underside with his tongue. While Sasuke was happily distracted he slipped a finger in between his ass cheeks. He was pleasantly surprised to find his asshole slick and prepared for him.

He slid the finger in deeper, and took his mouth off Sasuke’s cock. Sasuke whined in delight and annoyance at the same time, bucking up to show where he wanted Naruto. Naruto just kissed his belly button.

“Do you have a condom?”

Sasuke pointed at the nightstand. Naruto opened the drawer and picked up the opened package. He took out one condom and put the rest back.

“We have three options,” Sasuke said. “Sideways, doggy style, or cowgirl. Actually, I’m not doing the last one.” When he saw Naruto’s dejected look, he added, “I literally can’t. I’d probably crush your pelvis.”

“I’m sure I could handle it,” Naruto said, but he didn’t push it further. He was fine with whatever they chose, so long as they were finally doing it. “Um… Maybe… doggy style?”

He blushed when he said it. It sounded so dirty to say it outright like that, but Sasuke didn’t bat an eyelid.

“Okay, just help me a bit.”

He reached his hands out, and Naruto grabbed them and pulled him upright into a sitting position. Sasuke turned around and kneeled on the bed. He collected some pillows underneath himself and laid down on them, bracing himself on his elbows and knees.

Naruto watched all this with his heart hammering in his chest, and his cock begging for attention. He took off the rest of his clothes, put on the condom, and climbed onto the bed behind Sasuke.

He ran his hands down his sides, down his thighs. Sasuke spread his legs wider.

He was cocking his head, looking over his shoulder at Naruto, like he was wondering what was taking so long.

“You really are beautiful,” Naruto said.

Sasuke didn’t protest this time. He just averted his eyes and ducked his head down.

“Are you ready?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto aligned his cock with Sasuke’s asshole, and took a deep breath in an attempt to steady his wildly racing pulse. Then he pushed inside. Sasuke’s asshole gave easily for him, stretching tight around the head of his cock, and then the shaft. Naruto knew he should hold back a bit, but pushing into Sasuke was so easy, and he’d sunk deep into him before he though to take it slower.

He bent over Sasuke and kissed a shoulder blade. Sasuke was trembling slightly. Naruto held back for a moment before he started moving again, slowly and gently, allowing Sasuke to get used to him. He apparently hadn’t needed to worry, though, because soon Sasuke told him to ‘hurry up’. His voice was tense when he said it, and when Naruto thrust harder, he heard Sasuke’s breath hitch.

He wished he could see Sasuke’s face. Doing it doggy style sounded sexy and kinky, but in truth it wasn’t really what he wanted right now. He wished he could see Sasuke’s eyes so that he could know whether he was having a good time.

He wrapped one arm around Sasuke’s chest, caressing his pecs and gracing one nipple briefly. He molded himself against Sasuke’s back, but without putting any weight on him, and started rolling and thrusting his hips experimentally until he felt Sasuke tremble underneath him.

“Please,” Naruto whispered. “Please, let me know… if this is okay for you?”

Sasuke nodded. “Yeah.” His voice hitched. He gasped softly. “Yeah, it’s good… ohh…”

Naruto kissed the back of Sasuke’s neck. After hearing him so obviously overcome, he felt renewed confidence and desire. He thrust deeply into Sasuke, rolled his hips, and felt his cock pulse when a choked moan slipped out of Sasuke.

“Oh, God, Sasuke,” he groaned into Sasuke’s neck.

He couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

He reached underneath Sasuke and grabbed his cock. Sasuke whimpered. It was a difficult position, but Naruto managed to fuck Sasuke and jerk him off at the same time. He felt how Sasuke’s body strained, how he kept himself steady to meet each of Naruto’s thrusts. Naruto came first, gasping against the back of Sasuke’s neck as he came inside him.

Sasuke groaned when Naruto stopped thrusting. Naruto jerked Sasuke off until he too came, groaning into a pillow. Then they both slumped to each their side and remained catatonic for a long while.

At last, Sasuke reached over the pile of pillows between them and grabbed Naruto’s hand. He pushed one of the pillows under his head so that he had a clear view of Naruto’s face.

Naruto grinned at him, and Sasuke gave him one of his softest and most rare smiles.

“That was great,” Naruto said. “We should do it again.”

Sasuke chuckled. He squeezed Naruto’s hand. “Sure.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. “Don’t sound too enthusiastic…”

Sasuke pushed away the pillows between them and scooted closer to Naruto. Naruto pulled him into his arms and snuggled close to him. He felt Sasuke’s stomach push against his own, warm and firm. He caressed the sides of his stomach and the small of his back. Sasuke moaned softly.

“Hm… Sensitive?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. “Been non-stop horny for the past month.”

“And all the while I was right there, willing but completely ignored.”

“Sorry,” Sasuke said. “And…. Sorry for that thing with Kiba. I wanted you so badly, but I knew I couldn’t… that I shouldn’t…”

“You both could and should,” Naruto murmured.

“You make it sound so easy. You have no idea of how much I’ve struggled with my feelings for you, and the guilt, and the horniness…”

“I’m pretty sure I can imagine.”

Sasuke scoffed. “You don’t have a body jacked up on hormones.”

“Okay… fair point.”

“Besides, I’d long since given up on you. I didn’t even consider it, not for real…”

“Just in your wet dreams?” Naruto asked smugly.

“You have no idea.”

“Mm…” Naruto nuzzled Sasuke’s neck. “Tell me more about those dreams.”

Sasuke moaned helplessly as Naruto started caressing him.


	10. Responsibility

The next week passed in a blur. Naruto worked a lot and slept a lot. Some times he slept in Sasuke’s bed, but most often he slept in his own because when he came home late from work, Sasuke was often asleep already.

On Thursday the week after, Sasuke informed Naruto that he’d leave for the weekend.

“I’m going to visit my parents,” he said. “Mom has been nagging on me constantly for the past week. My uncle, mom’s oldest brother, is visiting and it’s kind of a big deal. I’ll be back as soon as I can, though.”

“When are you leaving?” Naruto asked.

“Tomorrow. I’ll stay there over the weekend.”

“But… Do you think it’s a good idea to leave now? I mean… the baby… she’s due soon…” 

Sasuke shrugged. “It’s not like she can come too early. The date is set, so… Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it under control.”

“Should I come with you?”

“If you wanna come, then sure, but you don’t have to. You have work, and besides… you know what my family is like.”

Naruto had to admit that he was a little relieved he didn’t have to go, though he felt a bit conflicted about being away from Sasuke right now. He was worried that letting Sasuke out of his sight would lead to him starting to neglect himself again. But his mother was there, and Itachi too, and they were both fiercely protective of Sasuke.

“I guess you’re right. I’ll be working tomorrow and Saturday, and I have a late shift at Sunday. We wouldn’t have gotten a lot of time together anyway.”

“You can invite someone over, by the way,” Sasuke said. “If you want to, since I’m not gonna be here anyway.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright, though?”

Sasuke smiled and gave Naruto a peck on the lips. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Uh… Because your family is… special…”

“You can just say it; they’re crazy.”

“They’re crazy! And they just ignore you and insult you.”

“Obito and Kakashi will be there, though, and the uncle who’s visiting always liked me. He’s cool with the pregnancy. I think he’ll keep the others in check.”

Naruto kissed Sasuke.

“I trust that you’re in good hands. Just take care of yourself.”

Sasuke smiled. “I will.”

 

\-----

 

When Naruto came back from work the next evening, he stopped dead in the doorway to the living room. Kiba was sitting on the couch, using his Playstation again.

“Hi,” he grinned when he noticed Naruto.

Naruto frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Kiba shrugged. “Just wanted to get away from my roomies for a while. Sasuke doesn’t have any good food around anymore, though.”

Naruto dropped his bag on the floor and took off his shoes.

“So you just decided to come over here and hang out, like, for no reason?”

Kiba shrugged. “Sasuke’s my friend, although sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.”

Naruto walked further into the living room. “Where is he?”

“In his room, packing.” Kiba’s eyes were glued to the TV screen.

Naruto realized he’d just have to ask outright.

“You didn’t come here to sleep with him?”

“Nah,” Kiba paused the game and turned his full attention towards Naruto. “He told me about you guys. Congrats, you finally managed to win him over.”

Naruto blushed. “I didn’t exactly win him over.” He fiddled with the zipper on his jacket. He slipped the jacket off and draped it over the back of a chair.

Kiba was giving him a feral grin. “You’re so fucking pleased with yourself, just admit it. You won over the ice princess, that’s no small feat.”

Naruto plopped down on the couch next to Kiba.

“Have you guys fucked yet?” Kiba asked as he picked up the controller again.

Naruto was shocked by the direct question. “Uh… “

“Hm, cute.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kiba shrugged. “You’re so shy about it. It’s cute.”

Naruto blushed.

“He needs someone like you, though,” Kiba said. “I’m glad you guys sorted it out.”

Sasuke came out of his room with a bag slung over his shoulder.

“I’m leaving now.”

Naruto stood. “Already?”

Sasuke came over to them and kissed Naruto.

“Yeah, I wanna get there before it’s dark.”

Naruto drew him in and kissed him again. Sasuke molded into the kiss and into Naruto’s arms. He pulled away reluctantly.

“I really have to go.” He picked up the car keys from the living room table. “See you guys later.”

“Bye!” Kiba said.

The door had barely closed behind Sasuke before Kiba turned to Naruto.

“So… How was the pregnant sex?”

Naruto blushed a deep red. “Stop nosing around!”

“Hey, I’m just curious how you solved it. I mean… he’s huge. He was big before, but now… Sheesh.”

“We just…” Naruto felt his ears burn. He sat down on the couch again. “We just sorted it out.”

Kiba snickered. “Was it good?”

Naruto nodded and grinned. “Yeah.”

Naruto grabbed them a couple of beers and then they played some games on the Playsation.

“No hard feelings, though?” Kiba said after a while.

“About what?”

“About me sleeping with him before. I mean… it was only casual between us. You don’t have to feel threatened by me.”

“I’m not,” Naruto said.

Kiba frowned. “Is that supposed to be an insult?”

Naruto gave him a crooked grin. “Nah… I kinda like you.”

“Psh…” Kiba bumped his shoulder with his fist. “Just _kinda_?”

As the nigh wore on and they got more and more alcohol into their system, Naruto got to hear a lot of stories about Sasuke from before he’d met him. Apparently, Obito wasn’t kidding when he implied Sasuke used to be a bit volatile.

“We used to sleep together a bit on and off before Sasuke met Shikamaru. Nothing serious, though,” Kiba said. “He used to be a real rich brat. Drove too fast in his fancy car and got speeding tickets that he somehow managed to worm out of every time. It was fun hanging out with him, though. He was always chasing the next adrenaline high. Sometimes, we did really dangerous things. But then he met his ex, and he changed a lot. He barely went out. Instead he just did boring couple-things.”

“How did they meet? They seem like an odd match…”

“Their mothers set them up. Sasuke used to say that Mikoto’s way of dealing with the fact that he was gay was to pour as much energy as possible into matchmaking. She worried that he wouldn’t find a suitable partner and get married and have kids since he was gay. I think she feared that he’d just sleep around and get a lot of STD’s or whatever.” Kiba shrugged. “I don’t know how middle aged upper class women think. I guess she acted to the best to her own capability. I know Sasuke really loves her. He would do anything to make her happy.”

“And she wanted him to marry and have kids… So that’s what he did?”

“I don’t think Mikoto forced Sasuke into anything,” Kiba said. “But she definitely have a strong influence on him, whether she knows it or not.”

Naruto sipped from his beer, pondering that.

He zoned out for a bit and didn’t hear what Kiba said next until he clocked in right in the middle of a sentence.

“…but after the break-up… Shit. Sasuke was wild. Like, almost dangerous.”

“What do you mean…?”

“In the beginning, I think the doctors prescribed him the wrong amount of pills and hormones and stuff. I don’t even know what he was on but he became… wacko. If he flipped, you’d better not be close to him.”

“I heard Shikamaru say he threw a frying pan at him.”

Kiba grimaced. “Shit… Well, I guess it’s understandable that he left. They didn’t really go well together, to be honest. Had no patience with each other. But I think Sasuke almost went off the deep end after the break-up. He never spoke about it, but he acted out.” Kiba shook his head. “There was even one incident where he got a warning from the police ‘cause he insulted and tried to injury a police officer.”

“Whoa, what?!”

“He got pulled aside in traffic to do a simple drug test. He tested positive so he got his license drawn in right then and there. He tried to explain that he was pregnant and that he wasn’t on any other drugs than what his doctor had prescribed him, but they didn’t believe him. So he got angry and resisted. The officer kicked him in the stomach for good measure. He was brought to the station where Itachi had to bail him out since Shikamaru was out of town.”

“Shit… They kicked him in the stomach!?”

Kiba shrugged. “They probably did it for good measure, just to properly get their opinion across.”

“Well, shit…” Naruto bit out. Sasuke had really been through a lot. “Sasuke seems calmer now, though.”

“He is. And I think you are a good influence on him.” Kiba took a sip from his beer. “I wasn’t trying to scare you away from him, by the way,” he added. “It kinda sounded that way, but man, I love that guy and I don’t want to chase you away from him when I see how happy he seems around you.”

“He seems happy?”

“Fuck, yeah. I’ve never seen him this way before. He’s like, really calm. Seems content.”

Somehow, Kiba ended up spending the night. He fell asleep on the couch and Naruto thought it was best that he just slept there. He covered him with a blanket and collapsed on his own bed where he fell asleep immediately.

 

\-----

 

Naruto took Sasuke’s word on the fact that he could invite people, and Saturday evening he used the opportunity to invite all his friends to a very belated housewarming party.

“This place is nice!” Ino praised when she saw the apartment. “He must be rich!”

Naruto shrugged. “Not really. I guess he used to be pretty well off, though.”

He had invited Kiba too, and he arrived with his two roommates a little later. It was a surprise for them all when it turned out that Kiba’s roommate Hinata actually was Neji’s cousin. They hadn’t seen each other for years and the reunion was a happy one.

They all drank and talked until midnight, and then they sang karaoke until the old lady that lived above them knocked on their door. She gave Naruto a baleful look when he opened.

“Never in the twenty years I’ve lived here have I heard such a ruckus!”

“I’m sorry,” Naruto said. “We’ll tune it down.”

She looked him up and down and made a derisive sound. Naruto thought he heard her mutter ‘unnatural’ and ‘not right’ as she shuffled away. If she hadn’t been close to eighty, Naruto would have told her a thing or two.

“We have to pipe down,” Naruto said. “I don’t want Sasuke to get a worse reputation than he already has around here.”

“He has a bad reputation?” Sakura asked.

“People think that the…” He mimicked a bump on his stomach. “That it’s unnatural.”

The others looked enraged.

“What a bunch of assholes,” Ino said.

“It isn’t just his neighbors. There are loads of other people too who really act nasty towards him. They pretend they don’t see him, or they stare really rudely.”

“That’s our society in a nutshell,” Kiba said. “Anyone who’s different suddenly doesn’t earn the right to be treated like a person anymore.”

“I wish he’d let us meet him,” Sakura said. “I know it must be difficult for him to trust people, but I think it would be good for him to see that not everyone are assholes.”

“I guess you’ll meet him eventually now that he and Naruto are dating,” Kiba said.

Everyone suddenly got very quiet. Naruto felt all eyes directed on him.

“Oh, shit…” Kiba said. “Was that supposed to be a secret?”

“No… I just hadn’t gotten around to say it yet.”

“You guys are dating!?” Sakura squealed.

Suddenly a stream of hugs and congratulations nearly floored Naruto.

“When did this happen?” Sakura asked excitedly.

“Uh… About two weeks ago. I meant to tell you sooner, but it was just so fresh and then I had work and…”

She hugged him. “That’s okay.” She grinned. “I’m just so happy for you.”

It was getting late and people started talking about leaving. Kiba, Shino and Hinata left first, but Naruto’s closest friends stayed a little longer.

“I guess I better get going too,” Ino said after a while. It was the middle of the night. The clock was four. She stood and stretched. The others murmured in agreement.

They heard keys jingle in the lock to the entryway door. For a second, Naruto wondered who it was. All the Uchiha’s were at the Uchiha residence as far as he knew. Then he realized that it had to be Sasuke.

The others must have come to the same conclusion. They all stared at Naruto as though asking what to do. Naruto stood. He heard footsteps in the hall and then the thump of a bag as it hit the floor. Then Sasuke appeared in the dining room, wearing a black trench coat that was open around his over dimensioned belly. Everyone grew very quiet. Sasuke turned and finally he saw them. He looked tired. The skin around his eyes was a little puffy, like he’d just cried. He looked at all the people assembled in his living room with a slightly surprised look. Then his eyes landed on Naruto.

“Hi,” Naruto said carefully.

Sasuke didn’t answer. He turned away and went straight to his bedroom, where he slammed the door shut.

Silence resided in the apartment for a few uncomfortable seconds. Then Naruto turned back to his friends. They all looked like question marks.

“I think something’s happened,” Naruto said. “I need to check on him.”

He knocked lightly on Sasuke’s door, but got no answer.

“Sasuke? Are you alright?”

Nothing.

He opened the door. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. Sasuke was sitting on the edge of his bed, his back hunched and his arms cradled around his belly. Naruto hurried over to him.

“Are you okay?”

He was crying. Naruto sat down next to him and placed a hand on his back.

“What happened?”

Sasuke shook his head. He curled around himself with a soft whimper. That was when Naruto realized something else was wrong.

“Are you in pain?”

He heard the alarm in his own voice.

Sasuke’s breathing was coming in short, pained huffs. He nodded.

“Shit. Is it the baby?”

Sasuke slid off the bed and sank to his knees.

Naruto shot to his feet. “I’ll get help!”

He stormed into the living room where his friends were still seated. Some of them stood when he barged in.

“Call an ambulance,” Naruto said. “Now!”

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement. Sakura rushed over to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s in pain. I think it’s the baby.”

Sakura followed him back to Sasuke’s room. She talked to Sasuke in calm, controlled tones the entire time while they waited for the ambulance. He couldn’t answer, but it seemed like it calmed him. Naruto sat next to him the entire time. It felt like the seconds slid by as slow as syrup. He and Sakura exchanged hopeless looks. Then, finally, the paramedics arrived and took Sasuke with them on a gurney.

Naruto felt numb as he followed them. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion around him. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. Sakura saw how lost he looked and grabbed his arm.

“Come, I’ll drive you to the hospital.”

On the way, Naruto sent Itachi a message. He wasn’t sure he was capable of talking. Itachi called him back, of course. Naruto gave Sakura the phone.

“I can’t talk to him!” She said.

“But I don’t know what to say.”

“Then tell him that. It’s better to say something than nothing.”

“What happened?” Itachi said. “Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” Naruto muttered. He bit his lips to stop his voice from wavering.

“Are you with him?”

“No… Sakura… My friend, she’s driving me to the hospital.”

“Okay… You have no idea what happened?”

“He was in pain,” Naruto whispered. “He came back and then he just… Suddenly he was lying on the floor…”

Itachi was quiet for a long moment.

“Thank you, Naruto,” he said at last, his voice uneven. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

 

\-----

 

Waiting in the hospital was torture. The latest news was that Sasuke was in surgery. They had no idea why, or what was wrong with him. Finally, a nurse came over to them. Sasuke’s family hadn’t arrived yet, so it was just Sakura and Naruto who sat there in the hallway.

“There were some complications with the pregnancy,” the woman said. “We had to take out the baby.”

Naruto felt his whole body go numb. The nurse saw his expression and hurried to continue. 

“She’s healthy. It was a bit earlier than planned, but not too early, so she’ll be fine.”

The flood of relief and amazement at hearing this was soon overshadowed by worry for Sasuke. She had mentioned nothing about him.

“The condition of the father is still critical,” the nurse said. “We’re doing everything in out power to stabilize him.”

“What does that mean,” Naruto said numbly.

Sakura grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“Will he be okay?”

“At this point, I can’t yet tell you,” the nurse said.

 

\-----

 

After a while, Sasuke’s parents and Itachi and Akemi arrived. Naruto was unable to talk to them so Sakura filled them in as gently as she could. A horrible silence settled over them all. Sakura held Naruto’s hand tight and didn’t let go even once. Akemi sobbed quietly against Itachi’s shoulder, and Fugaku paced back and forth in the hallway. Mikoto looked pale as a sheet. She was sitting straight-backed in her chair, staring into the empty air.

The minutes dragged by. Naruto had no idea how much time had passed. To him, it felt like the clock over the double doors at the end of the hall had stopped.

Finally, the same nurse as earlier came out from the doors. She gave them a small smile.

“He’s stable at the moment.”

It was like the air suddenly returned to the room, like it had been a vacuum before but no one noticed until it wasn’t anymore. Mikoto started crying and threw herself into Fugaku’s arms. Itachi was holding Akemi tight, his face pressed against the side of her neck.

Naruto sat upright in the chair. It felt like he was finally able to breathe properly. He pressed a hand to his mouth and clenched his eyes shut. Sakura hugged him tight.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay now.”

He started crying. He was unable to stop it. He held her close and buried his face in her jacket, and she held him tight the entire time, not once letting go of him.

 

\-----

 

The next few hours passed in a strange haze. Naruto found himself being pushed to the side in favor for Sasuke’s family. The nurse didn’t want too many people to crowd Sasuke’s daughter so only the closest family got to see her. Although Naruto told the nurse that he was Sasuke’s boyfriend, it wasn’t incentive enough to let him in. Once again he had to sit and wait, this time in the waiting room. He asked Itachi to tell him when Sasuke could receive visitors.

He told Sakura to go home. She looked dead tired. She tried to convince Naruto to go home and get some rest too, but Naruto couldn’t leave Sasuke now. He needed to see him with his own eyes to ensure that he was okay. Obito and Kakashi soon joined him in the waiting room. They had left to buy ample amounts of coffee, which Naruto gladly accepted.

By the time Naruto finally was allowed to come in and see Sasuke, it was long past midday. They were let in one and one, two at most. Naruto got to see Sasuke alone. His daughter was lying next to him on the bed, dressed in a pink one-piece, her little hands and feet moving spastically.

Naruto realized he was gonna start crying again so he bit his teeth together, but the second he met Sasuke’s gaze he knew that it was a lost battle.

Sasuke reached a hand out to him, the one not connected to the IV. He didn’t look well. His skin was pasty white, while the skin around his eyes was dark in contrast, but there was a glow in his eyes that made him look livelier than Naruto could remember having seen him before.

“Have you seen her?” Sasuke said, his voice scratchy.

“No,” Naruto mumbled through tears. He kneeled next to the bed, holding Sasuke’s hand.

“She’s beautiful, right?” Sasuke said. He was looking at the red-faced, dark-haired, twitching little baby.

Naruto smiled. “Yeah.”

She really was. He poked one of her twitching feet. She made a whiny sound.

“How are you feeling?” He asked and dried his cheek with the back of his hand.

“I’m high on pain meds, so I’m fine,” Sasuke said with a soft smile.

Naruto stood and kissed him. He held Sasuke close even when their lips parted.

“I thought I was gonna lose you,” he whispered.

Sasuke nosed his shoulder. “But I’m here now.”

Naruto held him even closer.

“Careful,” Sasuke murmured. “I’m a little sore…”

Naruto hurried to let go of him.

Sasuke caressed his face. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Don't be stupid," Naruto whispered. "How could you, or anyone, know that was gonna happen? I'm just so grateful that you're okay.”

Naruto didn’t want to leave Sasuke, but he only got half an hour with him before a nurse told him he had to leave.

“Get some sleep,” Sasuke said, and added with a crooked grin, “You look like shit.”

Naruto just managed a bleak smile.

 

\-----

 

He slept little that night and woke up early the next morning. For a long while he sat there nursing his coffee (he’d bought instant coffee on his way home yesterday), wondering how early he could get away with showing up at the hospital. He wanted to bring something for Sasuke, but didn’t know exactly what. Flowers seemed a bit tacky. At last he decided to bring him something to eat since he doubted the hospital food was anything to brag about.

He was at the hospital as soon as visiting hours started, and was the first one who got to see Sasuke and the baby that day. 

Sasuke seemed grateful for the food Naruto brought.

“The stuff they serve here tastes like shit.”

They talked a bit while Naruto cuddled the baby. Sasuke had wanted him to hold her, but Naruto was worried that he’d somehow hurt her or drop her… At last he agreed to hold her while sitting on the bed next to Sasuke. The baby was surprisingly calm. She didn’t fuss at all while Naruto held her.

“Mom wants me to come home,” Sasuke said. “She thinks she’s best suited to take care of my baby while I recover.”

“Do you seriously still not have a name for your baby?” Naruto shot in.

Sasuke shrugged. “I’ve never been good with names.”

“What do you think about going back home?” Naruto asked, bringing Sasuke’s attention back to the initial conversation.

“I told mother no. I know how it is to live in that house. It’s like a prison.”

Naruto was relieved. “I’ll help you,” he said. “I can take care of her.”

He looked down at the baby who wriggled a little in his arms.

Sasuke gave him a soft smile. “But you have your job. It’s fine, though. Akemi said she’d help me.”

Naruto felt a small stab of dread at the thought of having Akemi living with them for an undefined amount of time.

“I’ll take some days off,” he said. “Chouji is cool, he’ll understand.”

Sasuke looked relieved. “Thank you.”

Naruto rocked the baby. It seemed like she was about to fall asleep.

“Has Shikamaru been here?” He asked. 

Sasuke shook his head. “They haven’t gotten ahold of him. Last I heard, his parents said he was away on a business trip.”

“He doesn’t even show up for the birth of his own daughter?”

“He did make it very clear that he relinquished all responsibility.”

Naruto huffed. “If I were him, I would be dying to see my own child.”

Sasuke shook his head. “I don’t think he ever really wanted her. We just did what was expected of us. First we got married, then we got a child. I guess we both thought it would be like getting a puppy.”

He reached out for the baby, and Naruto carefully handed her over to him. Sasuke cradled her to his chest, touching her as gingerly as though she was the most delicate piece of porcelain.

“Our parents set us up,” Sasuke continued. “Young and stupid as we were, we mistook desire for love. But when we really needed each other, we fell apart.”

He looked at Naruto.

“You know… If I hadn’t been the one who had to carry her, I would have ran away from the responsibility too. I wasn’t ready for it, but there was nowhere for me to run. I had to face it, no matter what.”

He smiled.

“And I’m glad I did.”


	11. The Baby

Sasuke remained bedridden for the next few days. He slept a lot thanks to his pain meds. In the meantime, Akemi ran the house. Naruto really wanted to take part in taking care of the baby, but Akemi overruled him in everything because, as she said (and it was true), “I know best.”

But Naruto was willing to learn.

Akemi slept in Naruto’s old room while Naruto shared Sasuke’s bed. That way, she was on constant vigilance. One would think that this mean that Naruto could beat her to the privilege of picking up the baby at night, since he was closest to the nursery, but either she never slept, or she had some freaky sixth sense that let her know when the baby was awake, because she was always present at the first cry from the baby.

She shushed Naruto back to bed whenever he asked her if he could help with anything.

“I think she’s gonna kidnap your baby if you’re not careful,” Naruto told Sasuke one morning when Akemi once again shooed him away.

Sasuke smiled weakly but it seemed like he was thinking in somewhat the same lines. He got out of bed one morning, even while he was still supposed to remain lying, and picked up the baby from her crib. Naruto had woken up too. The clock was six. He yawned. He was a little sluggish in the morning, which probably was some of the reason why Akemi always beat him to reaching the baby.

He heard Akemi come into the nursery.

“You shouldn’t be up already!” She said. “Let me take care of her, you can go back to bed.”

“Are you trying to take my child away from me?” Sasuke said, as blunt as always.

There was a moment of silence before Akemi answered. “Sasuke… You know I just want what’s best for her.”

“What’s best for her is that I get to take care of her. Or Naruto.”

Akemi’s voice was a bit firmer when she spoke again. “You haven’t even found a name for her yet, and Naruto is hopeless. He’ll probably drop her if you look away for too long.”

“Akemi,” Sasuke said strictly. “She’s my daughter. I get to decide what’s best for her, not you. I’m really grateful for your help but you’re starting to take over. She needs to be with me and I need to be with her.”

Akemi didn’t answer. Shortly after, a door closed quietly. Sasuke came into the bedroom. The baby was still fussing. Sasuke sank down on the bed with a grimace. Naruto helped him recline back on the heap of pillows that steadied him in place for his sore stomach.

“I don’t know what she wants,” Sasuke admitted. He rocked the baby gently. “Is she hungry?”

Naruto, who had watched everything Akemi did, thought he might have a suspicion of what the problem was. He reached out for the baby. “Can I?”

Sasuke handed her to him. Naruto took her gingerly and lifted her up so that he could sniff at her bum. “Ugh…” So, that was the problem. He felt a bit of dread settle in. “I think her diaper needs changing.”

Sasuke moved as if he wanted to get up, but Naruto stopped him.

“No, no. I’ll do it. You can feed her afterwards.”

Naruto got up and went to the nursery where the diaper changing station was.

Okay. He’d seen Akemi do this. It couldn’t be that difficult. After a lot of struggling with a fidgeting baby and a diaper that seemed impossible to put on or take off, he was pretty proud of himself when he was finally done. The baby, seemingly, was not. She continued fussing.

“I think you’re hungry,” Naruto murmured and rocked her in his arms.

He handed her to Sasuke and went to prepare a bottle of formula. Akemi was nowhere nearby, but thankfully there were directions on the package. He made sure the formula wasn’t too hot, testing it on himself like he’d seen Akemi do, before he handed it to Sasuke.

“Look at you,” Sasuke said when the baby finally quieted down and started sucking on the bottle. “You’re a pro at this.”

“I’ve just been watching Akemi,” Naruto admitted.

“Still… This was your first time? I’m impressed.”

Naruto grinned. He scooted closer to Sasuke and watched the baby while she fed.

“It’s strange to just call her ‘the baby’,” he said. “You should come up with a name.”

“I have thought about one,” Sasuke said. “It’s just…” He hesitated. “I’m not really good with names.”

“I hear you saying that, but you obviously aren’t that bad if you’ve thought about one already.”

“Don’t speak too soon. You haven’t heard it yet.” Sasuke sighed. “I was sort of hoping Shikamaru would think of a name for her. I didn’t come up with one until the end of my pregnancy.”

Naruto clenched his hand at the mention of Shikamaru.

Sasuke was watching the baby as she nursed. He had a soft look in his eyes that made Naruto’s heart melt a bit.

“Aren’t you angry with him?” Naruto asked. “For leaving?”

“Hm… Not really,” Sasuke said. “I was pissed at the time, but honestly, we should have separated a long time ago. We didn’t really go well together.”

“But… You were pregnant and everything.”

Sasuke shrugged. “I spent so much time being bitter over that before I realized that I’m wasting precious time I could have spent with my child. It didn’t feel right. I want to focus on her.”

“Do you think he will come see her?”

“I don’t know…”

“He hasn’t contacted you yet?”

“No…”

Naruto sort of hoped Shikamaru wouldn’t come back. That way, Naruto could take his place as this child’s other father. Though, he did feel like the child at least deserved some contact with her real father. He reached out and placed his hand over the hand that Sasuke used to cradle the baby in his arm.

“If he cuts the contact completely… I’m here for you both.”

Sasuke looked at him, still with that soft gaze. “If I hadn’t seen you soldier through the last few nights of constant crying without complaining or tiring, I would have said you were full of shit.”

Naruto chuckled. “I’m glad I proved my worth.”

For a moment they sat in silence, both watching the baby whose tiny arms and legs twitched at times while she fed.

“What was the name you thought about?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke sighed. “Well… The name I thought of was Ahmya. It’s not traditional or anything, and my parents aren’t gonna be happy that I don’t choose a name that has been in the family, but I like it.”

“It’s a really nice name,” Naruto said. “It fits her.”

Sasuke smiled down at the baby. “I think so too.”

Naruto leant his chin on Sasuke’s shoulder. “Welcome to the family, Ahmya.”

They heard a soft shuffle by the door. Both looked up at the same time. Akemi stood in the doorway.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I overstepped the line. It’s just…” She twisted her hands. “I really wanted this… taking care of a baby… I’ve dreamt of it so many times…”

Her eyes filled up with tears. She hurried to dry them with the back of her hand.

“Ugh… I didn’t mean to cry, it’s just… I’ve tried to get pregnant so many times, and I’ve miscarried so… so… many times…” She bit her lip to keep it from quivering.

Sasuke handed Ahmya to Naruto and scooted to the edge of the bed. He reached out one hand to Akemi, and she walked over to him and sat down on the edge of the bed, right next to him. He pulled her closer and she leant against his chest.

“I’m sorry,” Sasuke murmured. “It should have been you, not me.”

Akemi shook her head.

“Don’t say that. You should be happy for what you got. It just gets me emotional, that’s all… But I’m truly happy for you and I wish you only the best.”

Naruto thought that she sounded like she really meant it.

Sasuke kissed the top of her head. “Thank you,” he murmured. “I hope that you’ll have a child of your own sometime soon too.”

She hugged him closer. “Let’s hope so.”

 

\------

 

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. Akemi helped out for a few more days before she went back home on her own volition as soon as she deemed Sasuke capable of managing on his own. Mikoto came and stayed for a week until Sasuke finally got so tired of her overbearingness that he had to convince her to go back home. By then he was able take care of Ahmya on his own, but he was very grateful when Naruto took over the care for a couple of hours so that he could take a shower or a nap.

Naruto had to go back to work, so he couldn’t help Sasuke as much as he did the first week, but that didn’t mean he didn’t offer to help him as much as he could. Sasuke often told him to get some rest and that he could handle the night shifts, but Naruto could see that he was tired. Still, he seemed to emit a glow that made him look more content than ever.

Soon they both came into a rhythm where Naruto helped out wherever he could and sometimes took a few days off to be with Ahmya and Sasuke more often. Otherwise, Sasuke managed fine on his own. He was a structured person and it didn’t take long for him to schedule the day perfectly for Ahmya’s sake.

Some days, Naruto felt like he was living a dream. He could never have imagined that it was possible to be this happy, that it was possible to love two people this much. He couldn’t wait to get back home from work, even though he knew that it might entail a few sleepless nights.

The days passed by so quickly, and before Naruto knew it a month had passed. He had meant to ask what had happened that day when Sasuke came home in the middle of the night so distressed that he inadvertently started the birth… or made his body reject his baby, as was the more appropriate description, since his body couldn’t actually start a birth.

It was just difficult to breach the subject. The memories from that night still appeared in his nightmare, only with a more gruesome ending, and it never failed to make him wake up in a cold sweat, desperately searching for Sasuke in the dark.

He had secretly been hoping Sasuke would explain it to him without needing to be prompted, but either Sasuke didn’t see the significance of talking about it, or he wasn’t too eager to talk about it either.

Naruto hated to be the one to ask, but what if Sasuke needed to talk but couldn’t find the right words? So he steeled himself, and one day when Ahmya was sleeping and the two of them had a little alone time together (which was spent in an almost comatose state in front of the TV), he asked the question that had been bugging him for the past weeks.

“Sasuke… That night… Why did you come home so early after being at your parents place?”

Naruto tapped nervously at his thigh and watched Sasuke intently for any signs of distress.

Sasuke tensed. The silence stretched and in his nervousness, Naruto started blabbering.

“I mean, you seemed upset so… I guess something must have happened… You don’t need to talk about if you don’t want to, though, I just… I wanted you to know that I’ll listen if you want to talk.”

Sasuke sighed. He scratched Vortex behind the ear and the cat started purring. “I suppose you can guess that it had to do with my father.”

Naruto had suspected that much.

“Was it something he said?”

Sasuke was quiet for another long moment. He was frowning, staring down at Vortex but seemingly not actually seeing him.

“He… He told me it should have been Akemi’s child who survived.”

Naruto felt his jaws clench so tight that he heard his teeth groan.

“It was just me and mom and Itachi who heard it,” Sasuke said, “and mom just looked apologetic, like she always does. Itachi told dad that my child was just as much his grandchild as his would have been and that… that he’d never respected me, or my decisions. Then they started fighting… and I left.”

“And then you just drove all the way back here in the middle of the night and they didn’t even wonder where you were?”

“I don’t know, I… I don’t remember much from the car ride. It was like I just… blacked out. And then I came here and I was so confused… I just wanted to be in the safety of my own apartment and then all these people were here… I don’t even know when I started feeling the pain. It just… I sat down on the bed and suddenly it just overwhelmed me.”

There was a long moment of silence as they both disappeared into the difficult memories from that night.

“Father apologized afterwards,” Sasuke added. “In the hospital. I don’t think we’ve ever talked properly like that before.”

“Well… Good to know he has a semblance of a heart underneath all that stone,” Naruto said.

Sasuke shrugged. “I don’t know… He was the same old grouch afterwards.”

Naruto wrapped one arm around Sasuke’s shoulders. He pulled him closer and kissed his temple.

“Excuse me for saying this, but your dad is a total d-bag.”

Sasuke snorted.

“I’m serious,” Naruto said. “He doesn’t deserve you, or Ahmya.”

Sasuke snuggled closer. “I know,” he whispered.

 

\-----

 

Mikoto had managed to convince Sasuke to throw a small gathering so that the rest of the family could get to see Ahmya too. Sasuke had been against it at first, but at some point he changed his mind. He insisted on having it at his own apartment, though.

All of the aunts and uncles who earlier had just ignored him, now dutifully came to pay their regards. Naruto couldn’t tell if their well-wishes were fake or honest, but he supposed that it was more difficult to remain spiteful around a cute little baby.

Sasuke refused to let anyone but the closest family hold her, though, and he insisted on no one but the closest family, and of course his favorite uncles, to stay as shortly as possible for the baby’s sake.

Kakashi, Obito, Itachi and Akemi stayed the longest. Ahmya was passed from one caring relative to the next, everyone eager to shower her with love, except Kakashi who held her on an arms length like he was afraid she’d bite him. Obito found it hilarious. The two of them had long since agreed never to have kids, but Naruto noted how Obito couldn’t take his eyes from Ahmya while she was in his arms, and how Kakashi’s eyes softened when he watched his partner with a baby in his arms.

They would be great uncles for her, he knew it.

Talking with these people came easy and Naruto found that he liked Sasuke’s family a lot once he just got to know them. Kakashi wasn’t half bad, though Naruto still had trouble figuring out when he was joking and when he was serious.

After a while, Itachi and Akemi took over looking after Ahmya, and Naruto and Sasuke rested on the couch together with Kakashi and Obito. Kakashi took out his book, and suddenly he looked straight at Naruto.

“So, it turns out that I can thank you for making these books readable in the end.”

“What?” Naruto said, smiling politely while his mind ran in panicked circles.

“You used to co-author and edit Jiriaya’s works, didn’t you?”

Naruto felt his polite smile freeze on his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He noted from the corner of his eye that Sasuke was following the conversation.

Crap.

“I talked to him,” Kakashi continued, insensitive to Naruto’s obvious discomfort. “He mentioned you, said you were his godson. I thought I’d heard your name before, but couldn’t quite place it.”

“Who’s Jiriaya?” Sasuke asked.

“The author of this book.” Kakashi waved the obscene orange book in the air.

“The erotic novels you read all the time?” Sasuke stared at Naruto. “Your godfather wrote them?”

Naruto cleared his throat. “Well…”

“So… That’s what you meant when you said you’d worked in publishing?”

“Um… That is… Yeah, you could say so.”

Kakashi looked with amusement from Naruto to Sasuke.

“You didn’t know?” He asked Sasuke. “He didn’t tell you?” He turned back to Naruto. “I’m shook. It almost seems like you’re embarrassed of your past.”

“I was sixteen, okay?” Naruto blurted. He had never been this embarrassed his whole life. “It was just a job.”

“You edited and co-authored these when you were sixteen?” Obito asked.

“Yeah,” Naruto muttered. He’d thought that would be clear enough by now.

“No one else edited them? Just you?”

Naruto shrugged. “Jiriaya isn’t good at finishing stuff, so he got in trouble with his publishers and, well… I didn’t want him to lose his job, we had little enough money as it was, so I finished the books for him.”

He shrugged as if it meant nothing. The way everyone was staring at him was staring to get uncomfortable, though.

“So basically, you were the ghostwriter of these books?” Obito concluded.

“Um… What’s that mean?”

“Let me look at that,” Sasuke told Kakashi, and was handed the book.

Naruto reached out as if to take it from him, but stopped when Sasuke glared at him.

“Wait… Sasuke… You don’t need to read that, it’s just… It’s just stupid… It’s a stupid book…”

Sasuke was leafing through it like he didn’t hear Naruto.

He stopped at occasion to read a paragraph or two.

“Try page 192,” Kakashi said. “It’s really steamy.”

Sasuke opened the book on that page, fending off Naruto’s attempt to snatch it from him.

Naruto wanted to just sink into the ground.

“Hm…” was all Sasuke said as his eyes scanned quickly across the pages. “This isn’t half bad. Though… You were sixteen when you wrote it?”

Naruto sighed. “Yeah.”

“Figures. I can practically feel the unresolved sexual tension here.”

“Yeah, okay, so I might have channeled my own…”

“Horniness.”

“-FEELINGS onto the pages.”

“I’ve read them too,” Obito said. “They’re not half bad.”

Kakashi turned to him with a mischievous smile. “You read them? I thought you were only interested in books on philosophy and politics.”

Obito rolled his eyes. “I do enjoy a little light reading from time to time.”

“I’m actually getting a little hot reading this,” Sasuke said.

“Is that why you suddenly get so horny sometimes?” Kakashi asked Obito. “You’ve been reading these in secret when I work late?”

Obito blushed and slapped Kakashi’s arm. “Stop it,” he grumbled.

“Stop what?”

“Don’t talk about that kind of thing in front of others.”

“But we know them.”

“It’s _personal_.”

Naruto was barely paying attention to their quarreling anymore. His attention was on Sasuke, who was still reading and apparently hadn’t noticed that Naruto was staring. Finally, he glanced up.

“… What?”

“Does it really turn you on?”

Sasuke blushed a bit. “Don’t let it get to your head,” he muttered.

Naruto suddenly didn’t feel so bad about Sasuke reading the book after all. Apparently, he couldn’t put it down now that he’d started reading.

“How did Yoshi and Hisao meet?” Sasuke asked.

“Well, they were rivals in the beginning. Hisao thought he was in love with a woman at first, but when Yoshi suddenly disappeared together with a really suspicious looking witch doctor, Hisao spent the better part of his late teens desperately trying to find him.”

Sasuke frowned. “Huh… Weird.”

“What?”

“I don’t know… I just got a feeling of déjà vu.”

“I have to admit,” Kakashi said. “I was wondering how Jiriaya, a straight man as far as I know, could write gay erotica so well.”

“Yeaah…” Naruto scratched the back of his head. “Jiriaya was angry with me for months after I sent in the manuscript. He had meant for Yoshi to be the antagonist in the story, but I thought he was such an interesting character that I drew a whole new arch for him.”

Sasuke handed the book back to Kakashi.

He scooted closer to Naruto. “You haven’t considered taking writing classes?”

“Hm… Not really.”

“You write well.”

“Well… Jiriaya wrote most of it.”

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that he didn’t write that sex scene.”

“Um… No, that was all me…”

“I liked it,” Sasuke said. He leant in close and whispered in Naruto’s ear. “If my entire apartment wasn’t full of relatives, I’d have taken you to my bedroom right now.”

Naruto experienced a sudden urge to chase out every last relative.

They cuddled while they watched Akemi rock Ahmya to sleep in her basket. She and Itachi were sitting close, talking together in soft voices.

“Go ahead,” Kakashi said to Naruto and Sasuke in an excessive whisper. “Have some fun while we watch over Ahmya. We’ll cover for you.”

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances.

“But… Isn’t it a bit weird? With you guys still in the apartment?” Naruto said.

Kakashi’s eyebrows arched. “We’re giving you a golden opportunity to have some fun together and you’re worried about _us_?”

“We won’t hear a thing,” Obito assured them. “I’ll make sure you have complete privacy.”

They exchanged glances again.

“If it’s okay with you…?” Sasuke said.

“As long as _you’re_ fine with it.”

They were already getting to their feet.

“And Sasuke…” Kakashi said.

Sasuke turned halfway.

“Don’t get too wild.” Kakashi winked. “Mind your stitches.”

Sasuke grumbled and pushed Naruto ahead of him out of the room.

Thankfully, Sasuke’s room was all the way on the other side of the apartment from the living room. When they closed the door behind them, they were enveloped in silence. They tumbled onto the bed, kissing and caressing each other. It felt nice to take it slow. They had been stressed for such a long time, but now they could take their time and just explore each other.

Sasuke moaned softly when Naruto pushed into him.

“It’s been so long,” he whispered.

Naruto held him tight and laved his neck with kisses. It had been far too long. His body was oversensitive and the feeling of Sasuke’s soft, warm inner walls tightening around his cock was exquisite.

He minded the wound on Sasuke’s stomach as he gently lifted his legs up. He hooked Sasuke’s knees over his arms and thrust deep and slow. Sasuke was rendered wordless within seconds. Naruto loved seeing the way he gave himself over to the pleasure. He barely made a sound but Naruto could hear in the way that his breath caught, and feel in the way his body tensed and clenched, that he loved it.

Naruto wished he could fuck Sasuke through his orgasm, wished he could feel him clench around his cock as he moaned his release, his hands clutching the back of Naruto’s neck. But he came first, unable to hold himself back anymore with Sasuke looking so gorgeously overcome.

He pulled out and slid down along Sasuke’s body until his mouth was at the base of Sasuke’s dick. He dragged his tongue along the length of it until he reached the head. He pursed his lips and flattened his tongue as he slid the hot, silky cock into his mouth.

He heard Sasuke gasp. It didn’t take more than a few sucks and well-aimed flicks of his tongue before Sasuke gasped and Naruto felt his cum spurt down his throat. He clenched his eyes shut and swallowed.

“I’m sorry,” Sasuke breathed. He carded his fingers through Naruto’s hair. “Been so long… was sudden…”

“It’s okay,” Naruto said. He crawled up Sasuke’s body until they were face to face. “Now you can taste yourself when we kiss.”

He leant down but Sasuke turned away.

“Come on, don’t be shy.” He kissed Sasuke’s cheek.

“Naruto…” Sasuke was laughing. “That’s disgusting.”

“It’s not worse than sucking someone off. You have done that, right?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Yeah.” He shoved Naruto away when he tried kissing him again. “But it’s not the same!”

“Aw, you’re hurting my feelings. I just want a kiss…” He pouted.

Sasuke sighed. “Fine. One.”

Naruto dove in and gave Sasuke a huge, wet kiss. Sasuke turned away and Naruto continued kissing his cheeks and neck. Sasuke was just laughing at that point. He told Naruto he was disgusting, but he didn’t seem to mind so much. Naruto buried his face against the side of Sasuke’s neck and wondered how he had been so lucky to stumble across this wonderful person.

They cuddled up close together and although they kept saying they needed to go back to the others, they soon found they were drifting off to sleep and didn’t mind too much.

“Are you actually aware what you have signed up for?” Sasuke asked into the quiet darkness. “I mean… You’re walking into a relationship at the point where you’re bound to have the least sex and the most responsibility.”

“It’s insane,” Naruto admitted. “But I’m not backing out. No way.”

Sasuke snorted. “You’re so stubborn.”

“And besides, we can squeeze in some sex here and there. It seems we have more than enough potential nannies, at least.”

Sasuke chuckled. “That’s true.”

They got quiet again.

“Are you still afraid you won’t be able to love her like a mother would?” Naruto murmured right before they were about to drift off to sleep.

“No,” Sasuke whispered. “Not at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, I can't believe this fic is finished already. It's been so much fun writing it and I'm so grateful for all the great feedback <3 Thank you so much for reading ^^


End file.
